Off from office for a whole week
with a bonus which would allow me buy gifts for my family and a pretty gift
which I am surely going to pass on to someone very special. Yippy!! And here
comes the most awaited festival of the nation, Diwali. The only day for which
we start preparing from the beginning of the month. Atleast this time, when it
is falling at the end of the month we all must have enjoyed the pre-diwali days
because our salaries got credited for the month to enjoy shopping. Our mothers
would be busy with cleaning the houses, fathers would surely try to show to their
beloved wives that they are busy in looking for discounts and replacing the old
furniture with newer if they find something alluring. Girls like me would be
busy in spending money for purchasing creative and decorative stuffs for the
drawing room to impress the guests and make them say “wow” for the beautifully
decorated house and brothers like mine would be busy in spoiling the
decorations and feeling proud for the same. Above all how can children miss the
opportunity of asking for new dresses and getting the same without listening to
a single “No” for the festival day? The whole excitement of the Diwali season starts
from the very beginning of the month with Navratra,
Dusshhera, Karvachouth, Hoi-Ashtami and other festivals giving us the
feeling of the arrival of the most awaited festival. This time also I did not get a chance of
enjoying the third one ;) Damn!!
Well no doubt Diwali had always
been the brightest festival of all. Ofcourse the day when all of us are hopeful
about the arrival of ‘Laxmi’ in our
lockers always seems to be bright. Distributing and eating lots of sweets had
always been the most favorite work for me on this day and I hope like the last
many years my neighbors, friends and near and dear ones exchange the sweets
this time as well with the same enthusiasm and warmth towards the
relationships. But have you ever noticed that these festivals have turned out to
be matter of materialism these days. For
almost 95 % of the population diwali is a synonym of dhoom-dhadaka and fireworks but have we ever tried to notice or
realize the fireworks inside the hearts of our near and dear ones which must be
burning all day and night due to one reason or other. Some of our loved ones
must be angry because we did not make it to visit them or call them once in a
while. Some of them must be burning because since the day we have entered into
a new job our attitude towards them seems to have been changed. Some
of them might be jealous of us and some might be just angry with no reason but
out of ego or so called “self respect” and they would never take a step forward
to shake hands or hug you, I mean to make it. It might be possible that this is
just out of misunderstanding or mis- communication but again most probably we are
also the victim of our egos. We
ourselves are not ready to take a step forward and tell the same to the person
you love that no matter how much busy and how far you are you still remember the
beautiful memories. On the contrary we expect the opposite person to put
his/her shoes into our feet and realize by himself/herself.
Remember memories last forever
and nothing can be a substitute of the day you lived with that particular loved
one of your life. The memories could be of your childhood days, your teenage days,
romantic days or so on. They could be you parents, siblings, friends, best
friends, lovers or just colleagues. But every memory has its own space and we
must respect that space.
Well whenever I
fall in such a situation the only song which runs into my mind is “Ek to kam zindgani uss pe bhi kam hai
jawani pyar do, pyar lo!!”
And the moment I realize this
important and very serious truth about life, the very next moment I get ready
to burn my ego and make it with the person I love or the one who is angry with
me. I wonder when we have such a short life and so much work to do how can we
give place to our egos in our hearts which is too small to be filled with love
even. God has given us such a beautiful heart to love and on the contrary we
allow our anger, ego, materialism, greed, selfishness and so many other negative
emotions to enter into that. Our hearts are made to beat and feel the love with each and every second it beats. Just imagine the world with no worries, no anger, no hate and just love. I know the world would turn out to be diabetic then but some salt in love enhances its taste sometime. So why can't we make a dish out of love and if we are really interested in burning the crackers then please make the crackers out of ego so that when it bursts , your ego gets burned into the fire.
People love spending their hard
earned money in buying crackers and enjoy wasting the same by burning expensive crackers on the festival
day. But they forget to burn their ego which illuminates inside them every day out of one
reason or other for one person or other. Let’s just make a pledge to burn our
egos this time and not crackers. Because
where on the one side burning the ego would lead to earning love and
respect, on the other side we would definitely be losing money and of all
peace of mind by burning crackers.
And if you are really a die heart fan of crackers then please do not forget to think about the poor families who find it hard to even make it for one day meal. If your money is screaming from your pockets to come out then please spend a part of it in making a poor roadside child happy. Give him sweets, give him some crackers and bring some smile on the face of that child. Trust me this time you will fell the most special person of the earth. The pleasure of making someone smile is inexplicable. Just try it once and you will realize it by yourself. Make your maid happy by giving some good clothes to her and for her family so that she could make her day special as well and respect you for being so generous and kind to her. Allow her eat your home made food so that she could appreciate the good taste we enjoy every day. If your room is filled with lots of old stuffs, be it be books or toys or clothes try to distribute the same with the needy ones. Trust me this Diwali you would be getting many more blessings along with the blessings of your elders. Make your family members happy by bringing gifts for them with your salary or pocket money. Nothing could be the best utilization of money than this rather than spending them on crackers which would ultimately be converted into ashes and would lead to increase in all kinds of pollution.
As a good citizen of the country
and as a responsible and rational human being let’s just pledge to say no to
crackers and say yes to earning love, respect and care of all of our loved
ones. Let’s just burn our egos and enlighten ourselves with honesty, modesty,
love, respect, truthfulness and care as a good human being and fill other’s
lives by bestowing the good deeds and giving them our utmost support and care
to them. You never know one smile can benefit thousands of people if the same
gets passed with each and every person you meet and that would be the best Diwali
of your life. Let’s make this Diwali the best Diwali of our lives.
Happy Diwali !!!