Diwali...

The festival of lights is due in a couple of days and is in no way different to me from how i have been seeing it for the past 5-6 years or so. To me, Diwali is symbolic of eradicating darkness and replacing it with light.
'Tamasoma Jyothirgamaya'.

I fail to see any reason as to why people would be so excited about this (not only this but all festivals in general); the only justification being a day's break from work, even that doesn't count this time because Diwali falls on Thursday, right in the middle of the week.Oh Yes, the holiday
does provide an option to save a day's leave :).

My first concern, Lifes of thousands of families are being scorched for the manufacture of crackers. Agreed that is their means of earning their daily bread;but the health hazards they encounter in making them and child labour do not in any way serve to justify the end products; nor their necessity for celebrating this festival. What I propose may seem to be the classical ending of a Shankar or a Rajini movie but it is the need of the hour: Members in this industry need to be educated to ensure that they do not push their future generations into this unfathomable abyss.

One more concern that applies to all festivals is, people often say that a festival serves to bring the family together. Family, as an institution, is not so well established in any part of the world as in India. But does it still hold good? To say that a festival brings together a family is
nothing less than making a mockery of the statement. This is no 'Thanksgiving day' as in Western nations, where people 'take time off' to visit family members. Do we need a 'reason' and a 'gift' to meet our own kith and kin? Has materialism cast such a powerful shadow on Indian traditions?

As I see,in recent times, festivals serve only as a stage to showcase the economic disparity in this fast developing nation. It certainly does not make much sense to eat sweets and savouries throughout the day when you see the guy who collects garbage waiting outside the gates for his
'collection' to get what he had promised his children back at home. Worse still, children watching from across the street when my own cousins happily while away a whole day bursting crackers is certainly not an occassion to be remembered for the right reasons.And the voices of the
thousands of children's' cries for right to education and normal living do not drown the din of the crackers.

If Diwali does remind people of their duty to help people in need and values to be upheld, I would be more than happy to 'celebrate'. Until each tear is wiped off the face of every Indian child...darkness will prevail no matter how many lights are lit..and I wait until the light of the inner soul guides us all...