DIWALI

DEEPAVALI




*BOOM*

*Wakes up with a start* “What happened?”

“Rassi Bomb. Good Morning, by the way.”



Well, only two days to go before Lord Ram touches home, but the little children in this country (or at least this city) care so much about him that they’ve started sending smoke signals to him, as to where his home lies. By smoke signals, I mean the miniature mushrooms of smoke that go floating into the sky every time they burn a cracker. Besides, it seems he won’t need the light or the smoke or anything to get home, because he can probably HEAR them anyway.

On a more serious note, Deepavali is one of our more beautiful festivals. Our celebrations of Deepavali though, are based on a huge misunderstanding. This festival is celebrated not only for the homecoming of Lord Ram, but is also a celebration of the victory of Good over Evil. Deepavali (which in Sanskrit means ‘Row of Lamps’, not ‘Earth-killing, noisy crackers’) was originally supposed to be celebrated by wearing new clothes, lighting a lamp filled with oil (to signify the victory of Good over Bad), distributing sweets among loved ones. Simply put, the light emanated from the diyas emphasised the true significance of the day – Victory over Evil, Spiritual Upliftment.

Even if we’re not as concerned about, or don’t understand what our mythology says, there is a very simple reason, lying in patient wait, as to why crackers should not be burnt. There is nothing good that they do for us or our planet, they pollute the air, they are a major source of noise pollution, they are basically slowly killing Mother Earth (which I’m pretty sure our God, Lord Ram wouldn’t want. There’s no point in ridding us of the evil if we’re going to die like this anyway). Think of it this way, if we don’t burst crackers, even those little children who are forced to work to make our crackers, wouldn’t be forced into child labour. All this I realized, when I was trying very hard to watch Mickey Rourke’s (my idol) interview on Inside The Actors Studio, and all I could hear was *BOOM* *PHOOF* *BAM* *DHEESH*.

Also, the crackers we burnt on Deepavali have become a huge question of social standing these day. Which cracker you burn, how many crackers you burn. The more you have the better. Like there is this family in my building, who have a fixation with bursting a huge number of ladis all together, after all their crackers are exhausted. This year they plan to have a round of 50,000 ladis. Hence, they’re cool.

All I’m trying to say is, when Deepavali is such a beautiful festival – the idea behind it, the ACTUAL way of celebrating it – then why are we hell-bent on turning it into a festival that does so much harm? There is a belief that the world can end in 2012. We’re only adding to it. Besides, lets maintain the beauty of this festival, huh guys? Lets do it simply, gracefully, and maintain the purpose of this festival.