The whole world celebrates today in all lights and colours as Diwali, commemorating the victory of Satyabhama over Narakasura, as the victory of good over evil. May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Festival of Lights, the Diwali. May we all get challenged to become agents of good striving for a victory over evil in our times and localities.
Diwali, brings to me several reminiscences from my childhood. The happiness in shopping crackers during this season, the joy in firing the crackers, the awe in watching several fireworks in the skies, and the list goes on, had always made lasting impressions on me and on my upbringing. Diwali gave the opportunity to eat some good recipes with my friends at their homes and also gave us an occasion to watch films. They were real good times of childhood spent in all innocence and happiness.
Diwali, is memorable for me, besides all these happy moments, for yet another reason, which always kept me to be on my heels. In the school, Hindi language as subject was introduced in my eighth standard and Hindi was always a nightmare for me. For it was a total new & foreign language to be learnt at that stage from the alphabets, and for some reasons I could not cope learning Hindi as I did the other subjects. The friends in the class who were doing really well in Hindi, had been learning it by watching Hindi programmes in the television at home. We had television at home only when I reached to my tenth standard and had a very little access to the television for that privilege of watching Hindi programmes. At the background of this canvas, an essay on ‘Diwali’ was a compulsory essay that always appeared in our question papers in all most every standard. I always had tough time in attempting to write the essay on Diwali in Hindi, and as follows, I had a very poor scoring in Hindi. My Hindi teacher always had a red face on reading my script, specially my essay on Diwali made her much more infuriated. The reason was, I had a good introduction for my essay in Hindi and from second paragraph I was explaining the festival using Telugu (my mother tongue) vocabulary in Hindi script. My Hindi teacher was on top of her voice, and had to warn me to be serious in learning Hindi language. So no Diwali goes for me with out remembering my Hindi teacher and my essay on Diwali in Hindi language. I still remember my essay, it goes this way, “…Deepavali, Hinduyom ka ek pramuk thyohar hi…. Is thyohar me sarvejan chichbuds or kakarpovaths kalchenge…”
The other experience I had with Diwali, is the dilemma created by my Christian folks in my locality, that Diwali is unchristian and Christians should not celebrate it. So at some point in my childhood, we had to be mere spectators of the festivity and lights, remaining at home. Though all our minds were on the festival and crackers, our eyes and ears had to be closed to all of it. But over the years, I realised the importance of the festival, the victory of good over evil and now make sure to participate in this rich festival of our Hindu friends. Now I feel how Christian it is to participate in our neighbours festivals, share with them the joy and community living.
Diwali builds community spirit and community living, and no one community should isolate from such community building festivals. Festivals add colour to life, and festival of lights adds grace and light to the communities in India. In this context of growing religious fundamentalism and religious fanaticism, festival of lights provide a space for friendship and fellowship among people of all faiths. Hatred among faiths is on the rise, and Diwali bridges that gaps among faiths and among people with love and sharing.
May this Diwali bring cheers and happiness to life. Wishing you all a very happy Diwali, and long live community living and community spirit!
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