Diwali

Tomorrow, the 15th, is the festival of lamps. Tonight they will burn the effigy of Narakasura, the demon of Hell. When the evil Hell-power represented in Narakasura will be destroyed lamps will be lit everywhere, marking the advent of a new dawn, a new beginning and enlightenment. All darkness will be dispelled; light will be ushered in and life will be "even as in heaven"...Well!

I have not celebrated Diwali after 1973. There is the usual greeting thing and other routine stuff but I really don't remember being enthusiastic about festivals like Christmas and Diwali post 1973. There was always something to mend instead of celebrating. However, that never prevented me from drinking a peg too many on Narakasura nights or on the 46  Xmas eves I have lived so far. I think that was because on such occasions there were friends to drink with well into the deep of the night celebrating Diwali. I usually hooked up with this one or that, depending on who was there, and drank to feel better. I usually ended up feeling worse, but that is besides the point.

This may present me as an alcoholic, which I am not.

Wait, what am I saying? This is all wrong because after coming to live down south I have stopped doing that. I do not have so many friends who drink, nor folks who are willing to stay up on festive nights with me. They tuck their dreams in their pillows and dream-sleep while I sit with my mending or read fat books waiting to sleep.

I will never understand why atheists all over celebrate festivals . They are associated with Gods usually. The  nonbelievers everywhere- the French, the Italians, the Americans...even the socialist states importunately celebrate fests which have roots deep in religion. Moreover, the roots are more into religious myth rather than fact, so why do these high priests of reason and sworn analysts of Truth celebrate an occasion associated with the one they want to prove does not exist? These uneasy questions are rarely asked. It is an indication that man is naturally a self-indulging spoiled brat of God our father. Whenever he has a chance to fling the moral clamp out the window he does so without ado, keeping all the goodies. What he ends up throwing is God, for in all this the only 'baddy' seems to be God, poor fellow !; everything else is good, the wine & the women & the dance & the shindig.

The hypocrisy of it all annoys me. Just to protest against that I shall light one single  oil-lamp on my doorstep tonight and pray privately to God. I shall sincerely ask him to heal our planet and ask him to make me a better human being.