In this poignant verse, Lily tells us the story of Diwali. Here’s her take on the Festival of Lights, in the special feature on Diwali, for Different Truths.
The beauteous city of Ayodhya
Iridescent with luminosity
Bathed in the holy haze of
Heavenly haloes
Welcoming with whoops of joy
The son who went to the forest
The obedient boy who bowed to his step mom’s bidding
The city streets resplendent with expectation
Waiting eagerly at their doorsteps
To catch sight of their holy prince
Lord Rama the Suryavanshi came home
That dark Amavasya night
He came to occupy his rightful place
On the throne where his wooden slippers sat – the symbolic
khadaao of Rama
Whether it is the moksha diwas of Jains
Or the bandi chhor diwas of Sikhs
Millions of flickering earthen lamps
Proclaim with a hurrah
That evil always loses
That light breaks through the dark
That each Amavasya has a moonlit night in its wake
Welfare and prosperity beseeched from Ganesha
Wealth and wisdom from Goddess Lakshmi
Booty and bounty they told us
Comes only to a sparkling home
Perhaps that’s why we leave all the clutter
In our disgusted dishevelled depleted minds
Filled with garbage of incestuous thoughts
Jam packed with pornography infused slumber
Grabbing viciously at grilled livers
Of hapless victims of our usury
While our homes get a designer make over
Our bodies wear the hottest pick of the season
Aha orange is the new black
Or was it green pray?
Our minds prey upon the needy
The innocent and the wayward
We let the filth of generations invade our pristine souls
How much easier it was to white wash our ancestors mud walls with lime and chuna
It&’s blowing up a fortune for our over fed grossly obese or overly bulimic child now
Miles upon miles of firecrackers biting the dust
Rockets with incandescent showers
Creating fountains of rainbow mirth
In the smoke laden asthma choked skyline
Basketful of palm greasing
Corruption laced gifts
Towering in the boots of swanky long cars
This is Diwali too !
The musical cacophony in garish cafes and bistros
The gaudy painted faces of inebriated youth
It’s a far cry from the sound of temple bells and incense soaked Rudraksha Beads
May Maa Lakshmi be benevolent
As the pompous pedantic pujas are performed for her
May she smile indulgently at her materialistic avaricious children
May she impart the wisdom of spiritual treasures to her shanti seeking hordes
May the light of knowledge permeate
The thick pall of ignorance
May we rise above the elaborate rituals and rites
And light a single candle for an orphan child instead
May we impart the flame of education to a deserving student
Instead of worrying about the quality of pure ghee in our lamps and halwa
May we gift our parents with the sweet scent of love
Instead of heaping their tables with spurious sweets
May the poorest of the poor eat one warm meal with a full stomach
In place of gaudy revelry in crazily priced five star hotels
Let me hug the girl who mops my floors and buy her a pretty lehnga choli and whisper in her
shy ears
Happy Diwali Munni!
©Lily Swarn
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