but no holiday tomorrow ! phew

This festival has its own special memories from the childhood... I remember when we were kids.. (yeah yeah, you gotta go a good 15 years back in time), we had a holiday for Janamashtami, and the gang of friends would meet precisely at 8 in the morning to begin the Janamashtami procedures.

We all used to send our scouts to look for the best spot in the locality to make our "Jhaanki' or Tableau. The only requirements for a good spot were - electricity connection, cleanliness, and access to water! And then started the day long exercise to gather mud, sand and soils of all colors to create the whole scenario where Vasudeva is carrying Krishna in a basket!  The whole story started from the Jail where Kansa kept Krishna's family as captive. The vertical doors of jail opened around some mountain, which had soil of at least 10 colors.. and then the epic river scene.. i precisely remember, we used to have our own engineers at that time to construct that scene where Vasudeva is walking through water, carrying Krishna on his head!!

Real mastery in the trade was required to build that river. The river had to pass through the center of our creation, with continuous water running, and in the end, there should be a proper disposal channel, so that there are no swimming pools around that place! And mind you, no leakage allowed, or else all the other scenarios were on the verge of drowning!!

It was great fun, sitting around your own 'Jhanki' while people visit it in the night, creating lighting effects with Diwali lights... and yeah, distributing some sweets as prasad!

Janamashtami was also fun back in BHU days! Our beloved 'Vishvanath Temple' used to create such awesomely beautiful scenarios inside the temple compound! It was worth walking up to it at 12 in the night and stand through the crowd to see that creation for 5 minutes! And yeah, then the prasad packets which they gave to every visitor!

Anyway, those were good old days, when we didn't have offices! So if you have a holiday, then enjoy! And if you don't have a holiday, then rush back home early, go to the nearest temple to your house and see the grandeur and story of lord Krishna!