HAPPY DIWALI!
LIGHT AT THE END OF THE COVID TUNNEL
By SHAGORIKA EASWAR
Last year, we looked ahead to this year’s Diwali with hope. The firecrackers and the mithai will be back next year! Don’t forget to take lots of photographs, because this is one Diwali we will be talking about for years to come!
This year, we are able to gather with family and friends – within limits. Just recently, York Region residents were advised to keep track of addresses and phone numbers of every visitor to assist with contact tracing should the need arise.
This Diwali, in many ways, feels like the Diwalis of yore – the ones you hear old timers speak of – loads of enthusiasm but limited resources. With ingredients for Diwali mithai still thin on the shelves and many restaurants struggling to keep their heads above water, scoring packets of khoya at a grocery results in excited calls to friends.
“I just found khoya here! Would you like me to pick up some for you?”
Little ones in the family are asking if they can light the sparklers that were packed away light last year.
Mythilee Venkat recalls the furor caused by the kolam (rangoli ) she did outside the front door of her apartment many years ago. “It’s so common back in Chennai that I hadn’t realized one is not supposed to do it in common, shared space here,” she says.
But that wasn’t the issue. A neighbour complained about the anti-Semitic symbol and she had to explain that the Hindu swastika was an auspicious symbol, unlike the Nazi one that symbolized hate. The latter also happened to be tilted. Another asked her, hesitantly, if it was related to some ancient practice, a sort of voodoo ritual.
“There were probably others who harboured similar doubts, they just didn’t express them to my face,” she says.
This year, Venkat will create a beautiful kolam on her porch, assisted by her granddaughter.
This year, as we gather loved ones in a hug, we celebrate with an added awareness of what everyone has come through.
As I pull out festive kurtas and begin polishing the silver lamps and puja thalis and bowls I inherited from my mother and mother-in-law, the littlest member of the family asks, “Is it Diwali?”
The way he pronounces it – De-wall-ee – melts my heart.
“Yes, my laddoo, it is!” I respond.
Happy Diwali!
May it be bright and beautiful for all of us!