Bowl of light..

As I meticulously tried to make rangoli of flowers and observing it again and again from top view to see whether it is going in right direction or not..(I was making without drawing the initial correct-dimensioned sketch of rangoli,I had to rely on my approximations) ,some bee like thoughts whizzed past me (may be because I was working with colorful flower petals, dear to bees :P ) buzzing about the whole concept of celebrations.

We-already-know-religious-reasons-you-please-don’t-repeat-them face expression can please be avoided, as I have full faith in you and am sure you all can tell me one thing or other about diwali of which I am unaware of. :)

Apart from the obvious-religious reasons, why we celebrate, why there is such hype about diwali , why after forgetting half of the other rituals we still stick to it..because we are still humans in this super-fast maddening world(though when we rush to office every day, we can be mistaken as some robots),we need some reason to be with family, with our near and dear ones, we need some fun, frolic ,some color in our oh-so-mundane life before we switch back to normal scheduled life.

I am not denying the fact that even this festival of festivals has witnessed some changes as the years have passed, now there are Chinese lights flickering in our balcony, Italian idols of ganesha and laxmi being prayed, wishes in the forms of forwarded sms(I think even this era of thousands of diwali sms is going to end ,thanx to service providers which charge exuberantly on these days) , face book gtalk "happy diwali :)" status, exchanging gifts to show off money, new glittering clothes to turn others green etc etc.But it is still a day which nobody in India can ignore, everybody flocks down to be with their family, clean their home, decorate them(making rangoli like me is one of The things),eat sumptuous foodie delights, gorge on sweets, be stuck in jams for a week ahead of diwali and being alone and not doing all these things is looked down upon as something pitiful.

This is one time we bond with people, one just can not escape from it,no "I am busy" status works today. You have to be part of it, and most importantly you want to be part of it. :)

You want to belive there is still some goodness left as you smile prettily to every passing person and automatically utter "happy diwali" followed by another flash of teeth. You want to believe that today gorging on sweets is considered fine, even though you were following strict diet for month,afterall its diwali. :)

You want to believe all is well.. as you stare wide eyed all the glamorous lights which are just everywhere around you.

When you chuckle and say wooooooooooow(your wooooow sound follow the path of shooter..) as the shooter goes whiz past you and breaks into an umbrella of lights streaks filing the sky with gamut of colors and jump as the chakri whirls merrily on the floor, you forget all the worries for a while.

And when we go to sleep, tired of all the preparations and celebrations, there is bowl of light which is still burning in your heart warming your soul which is actually the whole point of this. :)