The Mehta Family

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Diwali in Nairobi, 1971

The family's last Diwali in Kenya, at the house in Parklands, before the move to Leicester the next spring. Ba decided it would be the biggest the street had seen, and invited the street.

The verandah lit, the rangoli finished, and most of the street outside.
The verandah lit, the rangoli finished, and most of the street outside.

What happened

Smita and her cousins started the rangoli at four in the afternoon and finished it by lamplight. Forty diyas went along the verandah wall. The fireworks were set off by Pravinbhai, who was not allowed to do so again.

Who was involved

Everyone on the street, at one point or another. Pravinbhai stood at the gate and gave every child a box of mithai, including several children nobody could identify.

What came of it

The pattern, as Smita still draws it at the front door.
The pattern, as Smita still draws it at the front door.

The rangoli pattern Smita drew that night is the one the family has drawn at the front door every Diwali since, first in Leicester and now in four different cities.