Dear Editor,
“Let the darkness of evil gets burnt and new light of goodness emerge” — perhaps one of the most repeated lines revolving the spirit of Diwali(actually most abused line).
Will we just stop a bit and indulge in a bit of introspection and contemplation? Now celebration of Diwali is not a recent phenomenon, rather a tradition thriving since centuries involving generation after generation rendering it to perhaps the most pan-Indian festival.
Yet how can darkness afford to stand ground that too with full flow! Racism to communalism to casteism to violent separatism to corruption to land grabbing to red tapism to muscle flexing to trafficking to child exploitation to human bondage to sexual atrocities to torture of the strong upon the weak — sheer darkness all around! And physical emotional psychological economic violence and exploitation happen right within homes also! Rather it is often seen to be knocking out all norms of sanity and goodness from the ring with series of punches hooks jabs and upper as well as lower cuts!
After all at the end of the day it is not Diwali night, but human beings will have to play the greatest role behind removal of darkness of evil. At best they can draw the spirit of Diwali to achieve it, but concrete action need to be taken by us only promoting the mere theory to a practical entity. Thus it can be easily concluded that we are not walking the talk reducing the much highlighted spirit of Diwali into a bankrupt rhetoric or farce.
As a matter of fact on the very night of “removal of darkness”, we are at our devilish “best”! Right from early evening till dead of night, atrocious sound-emitting crackers reverberate throughout the horizon. What a barbaric torture upon the sick, senior citizens infants and domestic animals! Less said about the environmental pollution the better! Moreover these crackers also serve as a great avenue to display monetary muscle — who explodes maximum amount of crackers or whose sound is most ear-shattering! And not to forget that lot of tears and sighs are also embedded within these crackers which are made through the hard toil of severely exploited child labors! Don’t it hurt our conscience a bit!
When will we achieve real enlightenment of mind promoting Diwali to its real significance?
Yours,
Kajal Chatterjee,
Kolkata