Happy Diwaaaaaaaaallllllliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!

Shubh Deepavali! Happy Diwali!

Diwali, the festival of lights and grandeur, is undoubtedly the most awaited occasion for most people in India. Children look forward to it for the vacation, the sweets, the gifts, the new clothes and many more such reasons. Adults look forward to it for the holidays. Well, yes, everything pretty much sums up in holidays.

We all love Diwali. The Rangolis, the Diyas, the lightings and obviously gorging on sweets. Though, the enthusiasm to design the best rangoli, to meet every relative, to follow every ritual seems to deteriorate every year, Diwali is still very much there. Though the grandeur seems a little lost, Diwali persists to be joyous and special in its own way.

I love Diwali. But I do miss a lot of things. For example.

The locality where I used to stay earlier organised an annual show- the Ram Leela, every year during Diwali day. (Please Note: No connection to SLB’s Ram Leela whatsoever.) As Diwali is a festival meant to rejoice the return of Lord Ram and Goddess Sita from their fourteen year old exile, an occasion to celebrate the triumph of goodness over evil- Ram Leela is a musical and theatrical interpretation of all of this.

I used to love it. Love watching every element about it. The Ram-Sita wedding, their sorry depart to exile, an evil Ravana kidnapping Sita, her distress, the devotion of Hanuman, the siege at Lanka, the victory of Ram and his glorious return to Ayodhya- his kingdom. As a child, I used to clap my hands in awe when Ram arrived and burned Ravana into ashes. I found instant godliness in the actor who played Ram and immediate hatred for the actor who performed as Ravana. A candid confession- as a child, I used to kick and tear the remaining body parts of Ravana which were not consumed in the fire. Yeah, I was innocent.

I miss the Ram Leela today.

In a world where a powerful country dictates and spies over everything and anything anyone does. In a world where a government prisons, tortures and kills a vast amount of civilians. I miss the Ram Leela.

Let’s forget the world. Let’s stay at the origin.

In a country where a politician stashes away the citizens’ hard earned money and deposits it in his Swiss Bank account. In a country where a common man can’t afford to cope with the rising prices of petrol and diesel, a politician has no second thoughts in reducing his convoy of 20 cars. In a country where an honest IAS officer is sacked for doing her work diligently. In a country where every minute a girl is being eve-teased somewhere. In a country where a girl is shot only because she refused to serve a drink. In a country where two individuals are killed for getting married within the same gotra. In a country where a riot happens at the very birthplace of Lord Ram. In a country where a person kidnaps his own family for extorting money. In a country where a woman’s dignity and respect is compromised, molested, raped and gang-raped every day. I miss the principles of Ram Leela.

A Ravana was killed only because he kidnapped a woman. He had the audacity to not even touch her against her wish. He was a demon, yet he respected a woman’s dignity.

If he was killed, just imagine what justice and karma is going to unfold for all the above perpetrators.

I am sorry to write something like this on the day of Diwali. It’s not something happy. It’s anything but joyous. It’s not very festival-like.

It’s something to think about.

All of us have a Ram and a Ravana within us. It’s what we decide to keep within us that stays. If we walk by the right path and inculcate justice in all our actions and decisions, we have Ram within us. If we take the wrong ways and continue our malice, Ravana thrives inside us.

We decide what to have within us. We choose what to keep interior. Take the right decision. Make the right choice.

Eliminate the Ravana inside. That would be the true triumph of goodness over evil. That would make much greater sense than all the Ravanas that are burnt nation-wide.

Happy Diwali!