Why I co-wrote the Eid book? Part 2
Ready for part two? This one is a bit more intense.
If you haven’t read part 1, take a read here.
I was in 7th or 8th grade when communal riots broke out in my own city, Bhopal. Violence erupted and we were in a constant state of fear.
Rumor in the air was that the house right behind ours that belonged to a Muslim family was going to get burned. They had two small kids and were petrified.
Everyone watched helplessly but do you know what my parents did? They opened up their doors to hide this family in safety. For them, this wasn’t about who belonged to what faith. It was a simple act of being a human that transcended any divisions we have created among ourselves.
That evening, the family quietly came into our house to hide. I still remember the little boy crouching behind our couch. The girl was too little to really register what was happening and probably thought of it as some kind of adventure.
My parents knew what kind of danger we were putting ourselves into. My sister and I slept with knives under our pillows that night.
Deep into the night, the rioters came with torches and their house caught fire. At some point, the family’s relative came by and took them from our house. They were now in a safe neighborhood, surrounded by people of their own faith.
None of this is one-sided. You will hear stories with much worse outcomes from people on both sides. But what stood out to me was my parents’ stance and their act of bravery. The ability to look beyond differences. The ability to simply love.
Holi Bonfire Lamp Craft
The Story of Holi
The legend of Holi says that a little brave boy named Prahlad defied an evil King. The king asked his sister, Holika, to sit in the fire with Prahlad. Holika had a magical power that fires couldn’t hurt her. But when Holika sat in the fire with Prahlad, a miracle happened. Prahlad was completely fine and it was Holika who disappeared in the fire! Holi is a celebration of Prahlad’s victory over the evil King.
The Bonfire Craft
Now that we know all about Holi, let’s make the craft!
Materials: yellow and orange tissue papers, a transparent plastic cup, brown cardboard piece, LED tea light, popsicle stick.
Step 1: Cut out and color Prahlad’s shape on the left.
Step 2: Glue it to the top part of a popsicle stick. Put the cup upside down and make a small slit in it. Slide the popsicle stick in until it looks like Prahlad is standing on top of the cup.
Step 3. Cut squares about an inch wide from the tissue papers.
Scrunch them up by pressing them into a ball and then opening them up.
Stick them all around the plastic cup
Step 4. Cut strips of cardboard to make it look like logs
Place the cardboard strips under the cup.
Now place an LED tea light inside the cup and place it in a dark spot. Enjoy your glow-in-the-dark Prahlad bonfire!
Dhanteras Craft – Day 1 of Diwali
Diwali is celebrated over 5 days. Day 1, also called Dhanteras, is the day to go shopping!
Traditionally, people buy either pots and pans or jewelry. I have such fond memories of visiting the markets with my Mom and I tried very hard to capture that in our book as well.
Let’s celebrate Dhanteras by making this simple cardboard bracelet craft!
Step 1. Get some toilet paper or paper towel rolls. Cut a slit so that you can open and wrap it around your child’s wrist. I cut the roll in half to fit my kid’s wrist.
Step 2. Apply glue all over the cardboard.
Step 3. Use lots of decorative materials including gems and glitters. We especially loved using flower gems for this craft,
Step 4. Stick them all over the cardboard roll. We did them in horizontal stripes.
And your Dhanteras cardboard bracelet is ready!
Diwali craft for kids – Decorative Diya
Diwali, the festival of lights from India, is the biggest festival of India. It is time for joyful celebration, sweets and of course, fireworks and lights!
Learn about Diwali and its 5 days of celebration from this Bestselling book.
Diya is the clay lamp used during Diwali to light up the whole house.
Here is a fun craft for kids to make their own decorative Diya.
What you’ll need
Construction paper
Scissors/Glue
Gold paper circles – or cut with scissors to make the shape
Felt circles– or cut with scissors to make the shape
Cake circles – Or stick gold paper on cardboard
Step 1. Cut a felt circle into half to make a semi-circle.
Step 2. Glue a felt circle and a semi-circle to a cake circle. The semi-circle is for the lamp and the full circle makes the background of the flame.
Step 3. Add more layers to the flame background by gluing a gold paper circle to the felt circle.
Step 4. Cut construction paper to cut a big and a small flame shape. We used a squeeze punch to do this.
Step 5. Glue the 2 flames shapes on the flame background. Your Diya craft is now complete!