As I sat with my legs dipped in a bucket of lukewarm water mixed with Epsom salt, pretending I was in some kind of luxury spa and not my own bathroom with half-burnt diyas outside, a thought struck me. Every festival is just a well-decorated chaos.

We call it Diwali vibes. But what it really means is an emotional traffic jam with lights.

There is always that one person who wants to do everything. They want to clean the house, decorate, make sweets, host guests, light diyas, burst crackers, click aesthetic photos, and somehow also save the planet. Then there is another person, usually in the same family, who wants to do absolutely nothing and has already declared that “Diwali is overrated” while eating the sweets made by the first person.

Between these two categories live the rest of us. We are the people who just wanted a peaceful long weekend but ended up in a battlefield of expectations, WhatsApp family groups, and burnt phuljhadis.

The thing about festivals is that they begin with excitement and end with an existential question. You start by buying candles and end by asking yourself why you have so many relatives.

Somewhere between wanting to celebrate and wanting to escape, we end up doing both. We click photos for social media pretending we are having the time of our lives while secretly wondering if everyone else is also this tired.

And yet, in the middle of all this drama, there comes a small moment. Everyone sits together, the house smells of incense and fried snacks, someone cracks a lame joke, and laughter fills the room. That is the moment you realise that this chaos is the point.

Festivals are never about perfection. They are about doing everything together, loudly, imperfectly, and with far too much sugar.

So yes, as I sit here soaking my legs in Epsom salt, feeling like I deserve a national award for surviving another festive season, I cannot help but smile. Because no matter how much we complain, we will still do it all over again next year.

Only this time, I will invest in better slippers.

Happy Diwali