Happy Deepavali

Deepavali, the festival of lights, is back again and so am I. The last two days were spent making huts and setting up the village as a part of Deepavali celebrations in our office. My team mates and colleagues have already left the premises to get their things packed to go to their native places.

I, very well remember those days, when as a child, I used to very anxiously look forward to this festival. It was for the sake of crackers and in particular roll caps. Every child around sported the toy pistol fully loaded with the roll and there used be heavy exchange of "fire" with lots of smoke, noise and that typical "fragrance" of the explosive. And those of them who did not have a pistol used to use the dot caps, hitting it with a stone. The missed hits made more noise than the cracker itself. These memories just make me nostalgic about those days.

One of my friends told me that he does not blow off candles during birthdays. His reasoning was that our culture teaches us to light lamps and spread light and not to extinguish it. "Tamasoma jyotirgamaya" (in sanskrit, meaning from darkness to light) is the essence of our culture. We light a lamp to spread light, to ward off the darkness, to curb ignorance and spread knowledge. Deepavali is a depiction of this belief.

I personally admire those people who celebrate Deepavali by lighting lamps and not by burning noisy crackers and polluting everything around. Its high time we start celebrating festivals sensibly.