Dipawali: Akash Kandil' (Sky Lantern) & 'Killa' (Mud Fort)

Dipawali.... After 3 years I am in Pune my hometown (the place where i belong).... Why i love Pune, may take couple of minutes to compose my though about, the first reason i can say is all Pune is the place where i grew up, it the place where i learnt how to crawl, walk and run....  Its the place where i learnt how to speak and made some amazing friends for life.....  

Coming back to Dipawali, the reason i love festival as each one has its own flavor (I am a big time foodie).... i still recall the Biriyani and Sheer Khurma i had a my friends place....

A day before Dipawali i was roaming around City and near Deccan i saw the whole pavement was covered with rows and rows of 'Akash Kandil' (Sky Lantern), it was awesome look at night.... ahhh why i did not carry my SLR, but my phone was able to justify a bit....

The city was lit in colorful light all across... 

Another great aspect of Dipawali is Kids gathering together and preparing Mud Forts. During childhood days i remember we kids would gather around and build Mud Fort, and once its all done we would put all sort of clay effigies (Animal / Soldiers / village dwellers . and on the top of the castle we would place a thrown on which 'Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj' would watch over his kingdom). Those times were amazing, the spirit of creating those Mud Fort is still around but lately i see the number has reduced a lot, and thanks to cheap plastic colorful Fort are replacing them.

If you are to roam around city you will find kids still have the enthusiasm in preparing them, this one i saw near Manu place, the kids from her society had created the castle and it was amazing... they had created farm fields, where Cows were grazing, farmers were ploughing the fields, and Shivaji Maharaj was looking over his kingdom.

I feel its the parent who should be promoting kids in preparing Mud Fort during Dipawali, and along with explaining the story behind it (Mud forts are built with the imagination and design, inspired by actual old forts, these mud forts are made during Dipawali week, decorated with toy idols. These Mud Forts do remind us of the valiant struggle and heroic deeds of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his solders, building this forts will help kids to work together and have fun.

Next time around i would roam around and capture more of this Mud Forts that represent the true spirit and togetherness.