CHILDREN'S DAY SNAPSHOTS

31st December
my frozen hands
want to loose
their painful fingertips
long after the party is over
the dishes are done
I make a new year wish.

20th January
The shiny new flyover
is not a road
its curved underbelly
is home
cold, unsafe, no walls
the NGO people
tell us fairy tale


14th February
I sold 100 roses today
the money and mother
are gone
Are all policemen bad?


23rd March
I serve tea
to intelligent people
in the university
while they talk about revolution
someone called Bhagat Singh

17th April
My mom died
father is in prison for it
I am now a parent
to three of us.


27th May
The little girl
in the big house
where mom works
has something called vacation
I am sure it must be pretty

20th June
She says touch is love
Love cannot feel so bad
the chocolate she leaves behind
always tastes bitter
even when
I be a good boy

16th July
I polish the pretty school shoes
I iron the beautiful pinafore
I pack the tiffin
I walk the dog
I sometimes feel hungry.

15th August
I sold flags
at a traffic light
the tar burns
into my soles
what is In-de-pen-den-ce
who knows?

25th September
I can never forget
I can never tell
what he does to me
but I want to go to school....

19th October
The Diwali sweets
my fingers
my skin
tastes like gunpowder
my eyes can't bear the light
I make crackers.

14th November
CHILDREN'S DAY


 

Diwali once more

His eyes shine like that of a hungry kitten as the headlights of the car reflects in them. He is 6 or 7 eldest of 4 siblings and its a cold winter night in the North. Its Diwali today, his mother and youngest sister are shivering in high fever in their dimly lit hut in the slums. His father is missing with his drinking pals.  The other two are with him on the other side of the road rummaging the garbage through their freezing hands to find a coin that people may have thrown during the rituals or a big unused cracker that they could  sell. The headlights are too close but he has just spotted a ten rupee coin. He bends forward but is slightly late to bend back. His suffering is over.


The heavy embroidered saree is in place. the long artificial plait swings as she moves to the beat of the drum and sings aloud as if enjoying the attention from the neighbouring balconies and windows. The negotiations are louder than the songs, the juniors follow her lead in singing and negotiating. The servant serves them some juice in those separate glasses kept for the workers. The drummer stuffs the sweets and clothes into the bag. The lady of the house tells them to do their thing outside and not come in. The head eunuch blesses the new couple "May you have a son  soon !"


It is so easy and convenient to take two polarised views about Diwali

1. We work hard all year why shouldn't we celebrate, spend money, burst crackers, exchange gifts?
2. green Diwali, austere Diwali, socially aware Diwali

Ask the Margins
dear Power Center
your debates are useless
they change NOTHING.

Diwali once more.
 

Diwali Depression

Smile at the lights
try to measure
the nothingness
in the gaps
in between

the flickers of opulence
trying hard to light up
the dark long
nights of sadness.

My Diwali reasons to pray, say Amen !

Diwali was always my favourite festival, for the crackers up in the sky beyond our house in the hills and for the general cheer it spelled for every one. My mom taught me the Lakshmi Pooja legend much later but I remember she told me first that it was a day to share our blessings, spread the cheer and pray for us and others. The prayer we used to say from the Upnishadas in addition to the usual Lakshmi and Ganesh puja was :

असतोमा सद्गमय ।
तमसोमा ज्योतिर् गमय ।
मृत्योर्मामृतं गमय ॥
ॐ शान्ति शान्ति शान्तिः ।।

From ignorance, lead me to truth;
From darkness, lead me to light;
From death, lead me to immortality
Om peace, peace, peace


This Diwali when I will say this prayer for my usual reasons and two reasons that are a constant for the last few years :

• The Girls of India are my reason to pray always whenever I do. I pray for a better life for them, for a more equal and respected and wanted existence, where they crack board meetings and fly the jets but do not  still remain shackled when it comes to religious rituals. May they overcome the discrimination in religious practices and places and may the lives of the girls in this goddess-worshipping nation change for the better.
• The child labourers of India, the ones who make the crackers, bake the diyas but the light and joy still evades them. Someday I pray our Diwali will be more meaningful and would not need a 8 years old slogging in Sivakasi all year through for the 30 minutes of fun for a city kid.

Biologically like most of us I had only two grandmoms, both passed away before I had my own home and family and now live on only in sepia memories. So when it comes to rituals I had no one to guide me or tell me the dos and the don'ts . So for even the most basic rituals and elaborate ones like those on Diwali I have always been in the experimental DIY mode or at most I seek help from my third adopted granny- the Internet.

This time for We-do-it different-every-year-Diwali-puja at our place I am surely going to use the unique Lakshmi Pooja Pack from Cycle Pure Agarbathies available online at Pure Prayer that saves me the trouble of hunting for the various little essentials and comes with instructions too.

I am sure this is also the best way to recreate an authentic, traditional Diwali ambience for my 4 years old who shows increasing curiosity for religion, rituals and Diwali and their significance.

May the light reach more souls and we all have a meaningful Diwali !

This post is part of a contest at Women's Web.
 

Diwali

The smoke had a
burnt pungent smell
the noise was deafening

shouts could be heard 
from afar,too distant
to know happy or sad

the lights were
hazed out
in the smog

dead souls
celebrating a victory
almost meaningless

which world war was this?

DIWALI

Oblivious to the
dust rising from
the busy road

and all the
other real and imaginary malice
that kids inside the cars
are made to be scared of

she dips her small muddy fingers
in the rice pot
to quickly push
the cold lump
down her throat

she'll have to sell
a lot of earthen lamps
to make the next meal happen

its Diwali
in a few days.