Sudhanshu Pandey, the very popular Vanraj Shah of Star Plus’ Anupamaa is presently in Dubai, vacationing with family. His Diwali plans will be to get back home for Diwali and celebrate the day with his family.
Says Sudhanshu, “We celebrate Diwali by doing Laxmi Pujan at home, spending time with family, lighting up our house. We concentrate on doing all rituals and the importance is to have a happy night. That’s my idea of Diwali. As a rule, my family does not indulge in burning crackers. We do not want to be responsible for adding on to the pollution levels. My kids also do not like burning crackers. So we sit at home, listen to good music, have good food and enjoy.”
Sudhanshu has grown up having great memories of the Diwali festival. He recollects a few to us, “I have loads of memories from childhood of Diwali. I grew in Uttarakhand. Every Diwali used to be fantastic. We used to like burning crackers then and we used to enjoy with family. It was just another excuse to get together with family and have fun. Now we have a little more peaceful Diwali, that’s the difference.”
Ask him about the ambience he loves around him during Diwali and Sudhanshu tells us, “Lit up house, decorated temple and Laxmi Pujan is always the ambience during Diwali at home. Of course, a lot of prasad gets made. So the ambience is all happy.”
On the significance of Diwali to him, the Anupamaa actor says, “The lights of Diwali signify taking away the darkness from around you. It is also symbolic of taking away the negative aspects from you and making you positive and happy from within.”
His special message to his fans for Diwali will be this. “Please for God’s sake, avoid burning crackers, as we are only adding to the pollution. If each one of us decides not to burn crackers, we can contribute hugely to helping our Global Warming. Let’s do our duties and be responsible this Diwali. Light up diyas and stay away from crackers.”
Happy Diwali to all!!