Ahmedabad:
The festival of lights, besides its accompanying festivities and celebration, facilitated Amdavadis some much-needed time for family bonding. However, there is a chunk of citizens who, away from their homes and loved ones, have had a virtual Diwali reunion of sorts -- over web cameras or webcams.
In fact, there are families in the city who have made Diwali webcam reunions the norm, because it isn't always possible for people across the globe to reunite for the festival. DNA spoke to three such families in the city, and realized that Diwali is perhaps the hardest time to be away from one's near and dear.
Smita Banerjee relies on her web camera to connect her with her cousins living in New York, every Diwali. The device enables her to share the joy of the festival with the ones she holds dear, she says. "Even though different time zones make it difficult for us to celebrate Diwali on the same day, we still fete it with the same spirit via the webcam," says Banerjee. They have been following this norm for the last five years now.
Kalpana Deora, who resides in the UK, celebrates this festival in various ways. For one, the cultural club she is a part of in London, organises a Diwali bash around this time. And besides that, Deora calls up her family in India, also greeting them via webcam. "In the UK, Diwali is an occasion to wear traditional Indian clothes, share gifts with friends in town, make authentic Indian delicacies and decorate one's home, especially with lights. Around this time, students living her miss their families a lot, and that is when technology comes to the rescue," says Deora.
For the Gandhi family, bhai dooj is a very important day, and also a crucial moment for family bonding. Rita Gandhi has three brothers - Chirag, Keyur and Saumil Gandhi - all of whom live in the US. These brothers celebrate the tilak ceremony with their sister in Ahmedabad via the webcam. Rita says, "This is a very emotional moment for us every year, so much so that we end up crying together. But technology does bring happiness in many different ways to families living apart."
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