Happy Diwali!

Can it be anything else?

I mean, it is most appropriate to be saying Happy Diwali, isn't it?

It also puts me in mind of something that happened to me several years ago. The years when I was working my way up, slogging impossibly long hours and loving every second of it. I was riding my bike home one late night, Diwali eve, dog-tired, depressed and disenchanted with what I then believed was "crass commercialisation" of Diwali- the smoke, pollution, noise, crowded Nallis, Kumarans and the festival sponsored one-ways in T.Nagar.

If any one had come my way then, I'd have spontaneously combusted like a 1000-wala. I'm seldom so irritated, but this time, I was sore as hell. At nothing. At everything.

I sighed and sniffed and growled and accelerated on a dark and lonely road, cursing. And then it happened. I don't know why I suddenly looked up. But I did. And there it was - one of those awesome fancy crackers that light up the sky in shimmering sparkles. Remember, the sky was all dark. And there was this one lonely cracker, bursting out in such a regal spectacle in that dark corner I happened to look at.

One large, muted explosion. And then, little shivering stars pouring out symmetrically from that nucleus. Maybe like the creation of the universe, the part when all the stars were born.

In that moment, I suddenly felt connected. With every one, with every force on the planet, with humanity. My moment of epiphany was spiritual. Wholesome.

I'm afraid the last sounds like I was eating cereal. :)

It was quite a heady, spiritual experience and I'm not sure if I've communicated what I wished to. Or that it can ever be done. But it taught me that festivals are for connecting with humanity, for feeling like one with people, even those you've never known in your life!

Happy Diwali, folks! May we all connect with the Force!