“ THE Y DO N ’ T
ALL C E L E BR AT E
DIWALI , BU T T H EY
DO U NDER S TA N D
THE F E E L I NG O F
DIWALI N OW.”
W H AT I S D I W A L I ?
And then the day of, we have a big puja – that’s
a worship of the goddess Lakshmi. Lakshmi is
considered the goddess of wealth, so that would
happen in the evening time, as the sun goes
down. Then you pray to Lakshmi to bring you
prosperity, prosperity to family, keep everybody
healthy and wealthy, and then we would light up
the whole town again with firecrackers.
I want the goddess of wealth to give me her
blessing, so I do the puja at home when the sun
goes down. So I do that at home, to keep my
family and everybody happy and secure, and then
I come to the restaurant because this is where I
make money, so I want to make sure I say ‘thank
you’ to Lakshmi, who has bestowed upon me
a very lucrative and a very successful business.
It’s a cross-cultural country and city, my frontof-the-house is not all Indians, and my backof-the-house is only Indians. The past two years
I’ve come in to pray and all my staff are standing
with me and we do it. They’re not all Indians
and they don’t all celebrate Diwali, but they do
understand the feeling of Diwali now, and I feel
what I do here now, does make a difference to
me and my staff at the back. The people at the
front recognize that and we respect each other’s
cultures more – that’s what we do.
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F E S T I V E F L AV O U R S
H O W D O O T H E R S C E L E B R AT E D I W A L I ?
Are there traditions you grew up with
that you kept alive over the years?
Brimming with character, Pukka creates an energetic atmosphere to discover and
enjoy the flavours of India. 778 St. Clair Avenue West, Toronto.
F E S T I V E F L AV O U R S
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