I just received a $200 Diwali Gift Card from American Express to buy gifts for my friends and family. If you comment on this post sharing your favorite Diwali memory then you will be entered to win your own $100 American Express Diwali Gift Card.
IndianBlogger.com partners with American Express to promote their new Diwali Gift Card. As a word-of-mouth promotion, American Express likes to giveaway $100 gift cards, to 5 lucky winners who share their best Diwali memories on this post. Winners will be selected at random. There is no catch here, it is a simple word of mouth promotion for Amex Gift cards.
We will select 2 winners on 22-Oct 2010 and 3 winners on 27-Oct 2010. I will reply to your comment, if you are a winner. Please make sure to provide a valid email address and name while leaving the comment. We will contact the winners for the shipping address via email.
Contest ends on 26-Oct-2010 @ 12 pm Eastern Standard Time. Keep an eye on this page to check if you are a winner. Good Luck !
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UPDATE: 22 Oct 2010 1:30 PM EST – Updating the post with the first two winners – Ramesh Raj and Ruchi Malhotra. Congratulations !!
UPDATE: 27 Oct 2010 2:30 PM EST – Updating the post with the remaining three winners - Vinay, Kanaka Sundaram and Srinivas. Congratulations !!
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American Express introduced a new gift card design for family, friends and business associates for Diwali. The new Diwali Gift Card from American Express®, designed exclusively for the festive occasion, can be used to substitute a cash gift, included with the traditional mithai box, or added as a special touch to any Diwali gift.
Unlike most other gift cards, American Express Gift Cards have no fees after purchase no fees for activation, no fees for checking a balance, no fees for monthly servicing, no fees for card replacement, and the funds on the cards never expire. If lost or stolen, funds on the Gift Card can be replaced.
The Diwali Gift Card from American Express is available in denominations of $25, $50, $100 and $200. Diwali Gift Cards are available online for a limited time. American Express is waiving the purchase price and offering free standard shipping* when customers enter promo code Diwali.
October 25, 2010 at 10:34 pm
my best moments of diwali are when i saw my 2 year old little girl getting excited with the flower-pot crackers. she was so excited to see that. Those moments of joyful innocent eyes – i can never forget.
October 28, 2010 at 12:14 am
Congratulations! You are a lucky winner. I just sent you an email asking the address and some other details. Please check and respond to me asap.
October 25, 2010 at 12:08 am
Dehra Dun has been an important cantonment town. Around Diwali time that year we heard that Pakistan airdropped 135 commandos at three Indian airfields, probably Halwara, Pathankot and Adampur. During the struggle several army personnel were severely injured. Some of them even lost their limbs. When they returned our gang went to the railway station to see them. All of us were so moved that we did not celebrate Dewali that year and spent our pocket money to buy flowers and sweets (laddus) for the injured warriors and their escorts. Everybody praised us and overnight our infamus gang became a band of good boys. That incident changed our lives. None of us waste any money on crackers, instead we all love to donate money to the needy people on every Diwali.
October 24, 2010 at 11:25 am
October 24, 2010 at 7:38 am
I remember my Diwali Celebrations back home. It was so much fun to have all my cousins and relatives come over to my place and burn crackers. When we were kids, we used to start collecting money 2 months ahead of Diwali and spend the whole money on buying the crackers. Those sweet and special items prepared by mom and aunts and those memorable moments, they are just priceless. I miss all of them. Hope this Diwali brings lots of joy and happiness into your life. Cheers!
October 22, 2010 at 10:08 pm
October 22, 2010 at 10:59 pm
Congratulations! You are a lucky winner. I just sent you an email asking the address and some other details. Please check and respond to me asap.
October 23, 2010 at 2:52 am
October 22, 2010 at 12:17 am
October 21, 2010 at 7:51 am
October 28, 2010 at 12:13 am
Congratulations! You are a lucky winner. I just sent you an email asking the address and some other details. Please check and respond to me asap.
October 21, 2010 at 7:48 am
October 20, 2010 at 7:37 pm
October 20, 2010 at 7:35 pm
October 20, 2010 at 7:26 am
One Diwali which I had way back in 1998 October made a difference to all this. I mean to say it was a rare occurrence, virtually a turning point in my life. On that particular day, I was in Puttaparthy, in the holy ashram of Satya sai. Sai in his evening session gave us a unique lecture on the significance of Diwali.
He said “Deepavali” or “Diwali” should be an occasion to light up our inner-self. The real beacon in the core of our being is the light of our insight. An illuminated self means a being living in the light of his insight.
He quoted the example of Ravana-the demon king and his pride in his qualifications and wealth. The demon had highest qualifications and huge wealth. But he was a super fool because he preferred to live in the darkness of ignorance. He never thought of adding up flame of illumination of self-knowledge to the wick of insight. I regret to say I see many humans who are extremely qualified but only qualify with the image of Ravana.
May the the light of Diwali remove the darkness of ignorance forever.
October 20, 2010 at 4:10 am
jacksoncrisman@yahoo.com
October 19, 2010 at 10:24 pm
the whole day is used to be spent in opening the packets of crackers and drying them in hot sun on the roof top or on the open ground and keep a watch so that no body plays a mischief.
come eveing, the entire lot of crackers were distributed among all children
and each one used to keep them ina corner on the rooftop or in hisbookshelf.
My father used to come and used to
verify whether everybody was wearing cotton clothes or not. He used to bring two bucket full of water and keep them in a corner and used to sit on a chair beside them and then used to issue orders to start firing the crackers.
we all used to organise light the crackers in such a manner that almost for a period of 2 to 3 hours the entire area is full of lights and smoke. those days most funniest cracker was called a “plane”(a small cap size cracker which used to go zooom into sky, once lighted).but these planes used to go helter skelter most of the times..sometimes they used to go into the first floor houses through the windows and used to scare the inmates.
once that is over, all were ordered to wash hands very clean and then sweets used to be eaten (mostly symbolising the driving away of darkness with lights or to say the winning of good over evil as the saying goes.
apart from the above before starting the crackers firing, just at the time of nightfall, most of the area in the houses like parapet wall, windows, doors were all lighted with small oil lamps.
apart from the “planes” another funniest part ofthe crackers is the the “rockets”…sometimes these used to go like snakes on the ground when they slip from the stand where they were kept to upright.
October 28, 2010 at 12:14 am
Congratulations! You are a lucky winner. I just sent you an email asking the address and some other details. Please check and respond to me asap.
October 19, 2010 at 9:41 pm
Celebrate Deepavali, meet friends; eat sweets; light lamps and pray–but say an emphatic no to crackers.
October 19, 2010 at 8:41 pm
October 19, 2010 at 2:20 pm
On one diwali (I was 10) my cousins made a plan to frighten me with crackers. As usual i was away when they made the necessary arrangements. Soon they called me over saying that my new doll was lying on the ground where they fired the crackers. I forgot everything else and ran for my doll.
By the time I realized what was going on, they began lighting the cracker s all around me. My brother started throwing small lighted crackers called ‘olappadakkam’, near my legs and i jumped hysterically shrieking the world out. The most hilarious part is that they took photos of my ‘dancing session’ and showed all our relatives. Even now we all burst into peals of laughter seeing those photos.
P.S. My 3 year old daughter ammu happened to see the photos two days back, got “inspired” and danced a few weird steps for me.
October 19, 2010 at 10:27 am
My fondest Diwali memory is therefore the complete diwali and Kali Puja bonanza. As kids we would enjoy diwali to the fullest by burning fire crackers all through the evening, eating sweets, visiting relatives and friends. Then after all the neighborhood masti and when all friends would retire to their homes, we would proceed to the Bengali community celebration pandal and temple where the Kali Puja is going on. The raat-jagaran would proceed with fantastic cultural programs happening all night, people sipping cups and cups of tea to ward off the cold of the night, we kids playing, burning more crackers and then sometimes wriggling inside warm blankets or sitting by the side of a campfire when the cold is too much to bear. Finally just before the break of dawn, the Puja would be over and everyone would offer arati and enjoy the scrumptious and hot bhog offered to the goddess.
After celebrating the festival of lights and worshipping the powerful goddess, it would finally be time to go home, sleep and dream of the most enchanting night of the year.
October 19, 2010 at 10:12 am
The amazing thing was, the contest gave a new meaning to Diwali celebrations. People united as a community and expanded the festivities to not just their homes but the whole neighborhood. It was taxing for us, the judging part and visiting almost 50 homes in a day, but the experience was so exhilirating to see people from different backgrounds, even different religions come together as one that the tiredness vanished looking at their eager and smiling faces.
It was a showcase of the power of Diwali. In modern times when nuclear families are a norm, this kind of celebration showed how joy could be shared with anyone and everyone, how minor disputes could be forgotten for a bigger cause and how the festival of lights could not just enlighten households but enlightens souls too.
October 19, 2010 at 5:35 am
Now, we try out best to make sure our kids don’t miss the fun.. but it definetly is not like how it was in my childhood.
October 22, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Congratulations! You are a lucky winner. I just sent you an email asking the address and some other details. Please check and respond to me asap.
October 25, 2010 at 8:04 pm
October 19, 2010 at 4:35 am
October 19, 2010 at 1:42 am
After ensuring he wasnt hurt we all burst out laughing like hell remembering his expression.
Years pass by making the joke recollection more hilarious since the 6 year baby boy is today an engineer and we still pull his leg about how lucky he got. Thanks man for the fun.
Happy Diwali India!
October 19, 2010 at 1:00 am
October 18, 2010 at 6:41 pm
October 18, 2010 at 6:33 pm
May I whisper a few warm words of cheer!
What if all that makes life & living has become dear,
I still wish you a Happy New Year!
Share hapiness; share beautiful experiences of life. The small earthen lamp that we light on the eve of Deepavali, keeps its original glow, even after lighting thousands of lamps!
Good wishes and good dishes for this Deepavali.
October 18, 2010 at 6:06 pm
October 18, 2010 at 2:36 pm