Looking Back Detail Page

01 Apr

- Arjun Daryani – When in Std VII

The Land Becomes A Fairyland. Two festivals speed the parting year and welcome the new in India - Dassera and Divali - the first late in September and the other, about the middle of Octo¬ber. So you see the Hindu New Year begins at the right season. The rain has gone, and so have the clouds which darkened the sky. The new trees have grown up, and the crops are ripe, ready for reaping. It is the season of joy and plenty.
Delhi and Lucknow revel in their Dassera. Bombay takes it mild, arid reserves its energies for Divali. This is the season when the merchants close their accounts and strike the balance for the year. Has there been a profit or a loss? Now-a-days the profits are all theirs, while the losses are for the citizens. If when striking this material balance, they were to strike a spiritual balance also and account the ways and means by which their profits were made, then perhaps the 'black' mar¬ket would turn 'white' - and then, of course, the masses could enjoy a happier Divali. But now let us witness the merry scene --Lights! Lights! Everywhere! Dipawali means a string of lights. Myths have it, the Goddess of Wealth visits only those houses which are brilliantly lit, so to court good fortune, even the poor villager will put up his chiragees, little earthen vessels with oil and wick, the traditional Divali lights. The Bombay Shetia (the wealthy) will of course dazzle one with his shop front a blaze of electric lights. But Divali does not only mean accounts and gaiety. It is the time when the most miserly merchant finds himself in a giv¬ing spending mood. Sweets are distri¬buted with no niggardly hand, and gifts are given prodigally - And then, last but brightest, come the crackers. The still¬ness of the night is broken with their bang and rattle, while the sparklers pour forth liquid gold, and momentarily seem to catch the sheen of the stars. In the love of fire-works, even the grey beards are children at heart. Hail Divali, the Festival of Lights! Let the merchant have his account books and coins. We with the lights and joys, have chosen the better part.