Singularly festive!

Sure, Diwali is all about celebrations, and more often than not, it’s the time of the year when you get together with family and spend some quality time with them. That said, in Mumbai, there are scores of young women professionals who live alone and don’t have their family by their side.

Model Amrit Maghera is one of them. “I don’t have my family here but I stay with two roomies and they are no less than family now. Nothing stops me from having a big party. I love doing up my house; we even make our own diyas,” she says. 

Says Pune girl Mugdha Godse: “I can go into depression if I have to spend Diwali alone. When I’m in Mumbai on Diwali, I call all my friends over for a party at my house. I do everything on my own for the party, like decorating the house, making and ordering food. That keeps me preoccupied and helps take away from the fact that my parents are not with me. I love to go to a temple during Diwali and thank God for everything. He is my biggest support system when my parents are not around.”  

But for model Shruti Agarwal, Diwali is all about partying. “When you don’t have your family with you, your friends become your second family. So like last year, this year too I will be having a pooja at home and after that I am planning to hook up with friends and go for a house party where I will play cards and dance the night away.”

Anchal Kumar considers herself lucky that despite living all by herself, she has two sisters living in the same city. “Both of them are married and live in Mumbai, so I don’t really miss spending Diwali with my parents,” she points out.