Rhon­dor Dowlat-Ros­tant

Cen­tral-res­i­dent Or­nel­la Boodoo is among many who are fac­ing toned-down Di­vali cel­e­bra­tions to­mor­row.

Boodoo of Freeport spent her day yes­ter­day prepar­ing for a very small and in­ti­mate cel­e­bra­tion with her house­hold, by prepar­ing an ar­ray of sweet del­i­ca­cies in­clud­ing Kur­ma, Gu­lab Ja­mun, Lad­dus and Barfi.

Dur­ing the mak­ing of the sweets or Mithai, Boodoo ex­plained to Guardian Me­dia the sig­nif­i­cance of the prepa­ra­tion of the sweets.

“The sweets are loved by the gods. Kur­ma and Gu­lab Ja­mun and Lad­dhu orig­i­nat­ed in In­dia and it was passed on. For in­stance, the Lad­dhu is the favourite sweet of Lord Ganesh and as it is Di­vali time, Moth­er Lak­sh­mi’s favourite is sweet rice. These sweets are of­fered to the gods dur­ing our Di­vali prayers and then shared among our fam­i­ly and friends.”

Boodoo prepares some of her sweets before baking.

RHONDOR DOWLAT-ROSTANT

Asked how has the cur­rent COVID-19 pan­dem­ic af­fect­ed her Di­vali cel­e­bra­tions, Boodoo replied, “It’s not that grand as pre­vi­ous years where it would have the Di­vali Na­gar and big light­ing up in the com­mu­ni­ties so it’s a bit sad and dim be­cause of the re­stric­tions but we have to make it to. The most im­por­tant thing on Di­vali day for me will be my spe­cial prayers.”

She added, “I would have liked to have a big cel­e­bra­tion with deyas and the full works of hav­ing friends over and do­ing char­i­ty work but with the re­stric­tions makes it dif­fi­cult for me this year,” she added.

Boodoo said her cel­e­bra­tion will be­gin with evening prayers and the of­fer­ing up of sweets to Moth­er Lak­sh­mi.

“I will light a few deyas around the house and then a din­ner with the few of us at home un­til next year Di­vali, hope­ful­ly when there will be no re­stric­tions and we can cel­e­brate in a big way. To all Shubh Di­vali from me and my house­hold!”