Diwali is the festival of lights. Celebrated by Hindus around the globe to commemorate the home coming of Rama after a successful campaign including an unbelievable recce ops (by monkey god Hanuman), semi beaching ops possibly done without the expertise of a Hydrographer (i'm still searching) across the thin shallow patch between the peninsular India to Sri Lanka (without Immigration/work visa/NOC..etc.etc), followed by a War Game which was (possibly) under estimated by the demon king Ravana and eventually ended up losing his own face along with his 10 heads !! So....all said and done, Rama send Lanka back to stone ages (like Bush did to Afghanistan) and came back , and the entire country welcomed the couple and the military team by a magnanimous display of wick lamps (diya) from then on.. the generation and the generations continued the legacy of the Lord King's victory over the evil!
This was the story I learned being a kid way back in time in the southern part of India. To be frank, in my locality we knew the importance of Diwali but ended up celebrating in a scaled down format with just lighting the walls and terrace with the available diya which sometimes got replaced by candles , having diwali sweets from nearby bakery! the catchword is that "I never done it, but my sister took interest and lit every time!"
So like my fellow countrymen I kept alive the legacy with an adamant mind and continued with buying sweets and having sweets from others. May be I never knew the importance of the celebration myself or never had the time to view the same from another person's point of view, till last year!!!
There was this girl in my neighbourhood, who was born and brought up exclusively in the northern part of the country in the higher latitudes and definitely had that air in her, (bloody Northy :a Southy's unknown jealousy towards the massive crowd with fair skin! ). So just days before Diwali in the year 2011, during a conversation she explained the full version of the diwali celebration at her home and (possibly) in the so called Northern higher latitudes. How she and her siblings celebrated Diwali, and how her mother was sentimental in carrying out the necessary Hindu rituals (pooja/havan) and pulled her dad into ringing the sacred bells (which he defenitely hated!), and then make the diyas , light them, fire the crackers, followed by a sumptuous dinner with some exquisite dishes (whose names are not yet completely registered into my brain) etc.
Reading between the lines, she missed being with her family for the upcoming Diwali, because the leave was completely dependent on service exigencies. So our little friend was gonna miss her Diwali! The D-day in 2011 happen to coincide with 'Saptah' , a festive gathering famous in Vasco-da-gama, Goa in that weekend,that too on a fag end of October (the time when all people are nearly bankrupt, including me !).
On Diwali day, afternoon I didn't see her and on enquiry came to know that she wasn't feeling well. So I paid a visit, and yes she was looking weak and fragile. Her room was filled with the 'cloud' of Vicks Vaporub. She somehow managed a smile and told the situation is under control and I never had anything other than a shake-hand as greetings for Diwali. By evening I came to know this bugger had gone to the hospital and got admitted and the experts told her without any diagnosis as (suspected) Malaria. The word malaria had a seismic effect overall me, that I almost visualized her in bed (hospital, i meant!) with saline tubes running Cris-cross.
Most saturday evening twilight time do hold a whiff of melancholy for me (i dont know whether its the same for others) and this news did add more a heavy feeling to the atmosphere around.
I sat in my cabin, reading and doing some study works, definitely out of focus till my other neighbour Mr. Z Singh turned up with a humble query about 'my' diwali celebrations including the plans on lighting diyas! Since my blankness spoke better, he rushed back to his cabin and brought two candles, coated in silver colour which had a label that read "love candle (with a deliberate stroke above the alphabet 'c' which could easily be mistaken for the alphabet 'h' and collectively would read 'handle'...hmmm...smart) strawberry fragrance!". In a short while , as I was stuck with the label, he explained that he had kept it for his "creative" session with his wife!! How sweet...!!
I spent another hour wondering how to go about it. As one great man had once coined "Nothing can stop an idea, whose time has come!" the real-idea-struck-me-at-that-moment! A celebration of Diwali ..totally.!! Defenitely not the candle....but something brilliant (according to me)!!
I had two ash-trays made of steel, i removed the top lid, washed it properly with bathing soap, scrubbed with sand and what not, finally I got a spic 'n span tray, make it plural; two-trays. Found a brand new white hand kerchief , tore it in two equal pieces and my logic of cotton being a good wick for a lamp fitted well. With all reverence and good will I lit the first 'make-shift' diya in front of her cabin!! There was none to watch me (or my craziness) except our canine friend whom we had named as "Long H" looking at me puzzled !! And believe me nothing stuns a dog other than our sudden act of kindness (courtesy @calamur in twitter).
As I walked back to my cabin, my mentor and his better half reached there; Mrs and Mr Sagoch with Diwali sweets. Presented me big laddoos , exchanged greetings and left. The other part of my craziness comes now, I scrambled my bike and went out to city and bought a little present, came back, packed some laddoos (pardon my miser attitude view bankruptcy) and walked towards the hospital. I was expecting the patient to be in a semi-delirious state, and to my dismay I found her reading a magazine with the heading 'Good Housekeeping', cheerful and explained how two oversized syringes (obviously, with huge needles) were applied on to her . I could sense the same cloud of vicks vaporub in that room too. Anyway I conveyed the Diwali greetings, presented her my small gift and fed her the laddoo (against the prescription of the doctor). Spent some time and walked back to my room. It might be too much of a cliche' to say that "I - dont - know - what - was - that ", to be frank , we knew what it was , but could'nt or got lost in translation somewhere.
I never told her that this was the first ever Diwali I celebrated within my expertise and satisfaction. I knew that this was the craziest idea, at the same time one among the funniest moments of my life. And a year forward as another Diwali is arriving, I'm finding myself in an entirely different platform and scenario where possibility of making a diya out of an ash-tray lies lightyears away! and an appearance of anyone with diwali sweets would be a chance accident! and above all meeting someone like that is as equal as searching for a Hadron's brother or sister in CERN!
So.....that is all sirs, and I wish each and everyone (and myself) a very Happy Diwali ! may the legacy of lighting candles and distributing sweets and stealthily having more sweets be alive throughout the life...!!! What else to say other than "Let there be light......!".
