My earliest memories of Diwali are of being woken up at an unearthly hour and while I continued to sleep on a stool in the bathroom, mom would give me an oil massage with sesame oil! So for me diwali is the smell of sesame oil and besan, and feeling heavy lidded all day…
If you think about it – what is Diwali? The victory of good over evil. Light over darkness. The destruction of ego and false pride. The mingling of souls. The birth of purity.
I often wonder if these are mere words in today’s world. There is no Rama now to come and destroy evil Ravana. There are so many ten headed egoistic proud Ravana’s amidst us. We are unable to destroy them. We let them rule us. The corrupt politicians who eat all our tax money and grow fatter, the egoistic people (read clients) who put us down at every given opportunity…we put up with all of them day in and day out. Or we find ways to avoid them and live in our own oblivious orbs of happiness.
Today this festival is all about HAVE to shop. HAVE to buy new clothes. HAVE to buy sweets. HAVE to impress friends. So many HAVE to’s that we subject ourselves to. The day has become a fashion parade if you ask me! Everyone sporting the latest styles…
In my daughter’s school they celebrated Diwali yesterday and little children had written little essays. All of them had written that on Diwali they wear new clothes and eat sweets and burst crackers! Looks like everyone forgot to tell the kids what Diwali is really celebrated for.
So does it really make sense to celebrate Diwali in this manner?
This morning as I was bathing my daughter, I told her the story of why we celebrate Diwali. About destruction of bad people and victory of good people and so on. Suddenly, she asked me… “you told me that both devil and angel are inside us? So if I have bad thoughts about someone what should I do?”
So I asked her “Hmmm…do you have bad thoughts about someone then?”
“Yesterday I told Anushka that I will not be her friend. Is that bad?”she asked me blowing soap bubbles.
“If that made her sad, then it’s bad.”I said
“Yes she was sad…but she was really irritating me and teasing me…that’s why I said I will not be your friend. So what is wrong in that?” My daughter protested.
“Sweety I think you are feeling bad about what you told her. So you can say sorry to her and become her friend. And also tell her not to tease you again.” I said, trying to sound wise.
“Ok – let’s call her now!” she said, happy that her problem had been solved.
But the whole incident startled me! Here I was being so cynical and lamenting looking at the macro picture. But she had simplified it so much. First let me introspect and start by destroying the evil within me. If I can do that then I deserve to celebrate!
I’m going to try. I hope you will too. For all those who visited this DP and also to all MSians who did not – here’s wishing you all a very very happy Diwali.
