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Is there one among the millions of women in Mumbai who doesn’t look on Diwali with a slight feeling of apprehension?

Let’s face it, whichever strata of society we belong to — Diwali brings with it a number of factors that even as they fill you with joy and well-being, make life that much more difficult.

Let’s start with the business of gifting. There’s the making of endless lists, the shopping, the packing and then the distribution. That in itself is a taxing (and budget-depleting) enterprise in itself.

But then you have the receiving of gifts as an added factor. What to do when people you haven’t sent gifts to, send you some by surprise? What do you do with the burgeoning pile of mithai diyas and dried fruit? What do you fill return thalis with? And so on and so forth.

Then there is the question of clothes. Diwali means dressing up to the hilt — saris, jewels, make up... the whole nine yards of it. If you belong to the idle rich, then these things come simply I guess, but add on a job and a family to look after — and dress up — and it becomes another challenge that Diwali brings.

Then, of course, there’s the cleaning and decorating of the house — mostly left to the women folk. Then there’s the making of sweets, and traditional dishes — again left to the woman of the house a massive enterprise and a hazard because the carefully stuck to diet she’s been on goes for a six.

Diwali also means a hundred sms greetings that you now have to receive, reply to and lob back, because the whole world and its brother have you on instant messaging.

Then there’s the gambling, never an easy thing if you can’t tell a Jack from an Ace. And with that there’s also large Diwali parties where you are piled with more food and drink than you can handle, and meet more people than you have met in the whole year.

And, of course, there’s the bursting of crackers-one more reason to make women apprehensive. In all my years in Mumbai I haven’t met a single woman who likes the act of bursting crackers — in fact women on the whole look upon it with dread — for the noise, pollution and safety hazard it is.

And lastly there’s the business of Diwali bakshish. The plumber, the potter the candlestick-maker along with the postman, the dhobhi the vegetable-seller and the cable operator all sport huge bakshish, friendly smiles and go in to the forelock tugging routine before the woman of the house.

But even with all these attributes, Mumbai’s women manage to dress up their homes, their families, themselves, cook, clean, send gifts and rise to the occasion to make Diwali a festive occasion like no other.

So happy Diwali to you gentle reader — especially to Mumbai’s women!

s_malavika@dnaindia.net