Halloween

 Dear Koko,

Of all the festivals that we celebrated as kids, and we celebrated a lot, Halloween is definitely not one. It’s a recent import in our country and frankly I don’t get what all the hang up about it is. All cultures have some sort of a ritual to respect the dead or the spirit world or whatever you would call it. Halloween is just an extravagant candy hunt. 

But if it were to be a thing when we were kids, I would definitely be one to go around trick or treating. And if Hollywood is to be believed that’s what people do. In the last couple of years in Bangalore I have seen this as a ritual and I keep a candy bowl stashed well so I don’t get “those looks” from tiny Super Man.

Since the onset of Corona, this little ritual has taken a back seat. Imagine a bunch of unsupervised children licking their fingers from the candy they have secured, ringing doorbells, crowding elevators. Horrors! But surely a little bit of this dalliance must be indulged in. So there were were in some spooky mask or the other, slowly assembling. I saw you organically drift away from me the moment you set eyes upon your friends.

But I see the couple of you, standing here and there. none of you were really making an effort to go anywhere and I venture - Go on with your Trick or Treat, won't you? A little wise man puts me in my rightful place by declaring: Aunty, if someone comes and gives us candy, it's good, we won't ask.

What happened to the children of this generation, why do they never ask? Never bawl their eyes out for a toy, or ask for things from Santa or at a chocolate shop. Oh, wait, you already have everything. Your wardrobes already have four or five Nerf guns and hundreds of Hotwheels, what do you ask Santa for? All the latest toys have already been purchased, what can a toy shop entice you with now? And of course your homes have well stashed candy bowls, why oh why would you want to ask for more?

Love,

Ma