Diwali Thoughts

The night ended to greet the morn As the world around Boomed and flared With Diwali fire The morning wind Reeked cracker fumes Wandered lazily around Over rain-soaked earth As children roared In fun and mirth Kitchens that had worked Late into night woke again Early in the morn To dress up or season Their day-and-night toil Of savouries and sweets And arrange them In gleaming vessels And on sprawling plates As women still wet after their bath Adorned jasmine on their hair As they draped silk Over their bare sandalwood torsos A TV channel blared The thousand names Of the Mother Of The Universe With Her mighty image Seated on a lion Brightening the screen A wise man in saffron His forehead ashen Stoked his beard On another channel His eyes glistening As he expounded Profound philosophical truths From some sacred Sanskrit scripture A lady activist on another one Who perhaps had no childhood Nor seen the glint in the eyes Of a tot holding a lighted sparkler Lamented the pollution of the festival Warned everyone of global warming And sought a Green Diwali Sans sound, light and play Yet another one had a lady Flamboyant with patchy eyes Perhaps hyperlipidaemic Who dished out recipes Of sautéed chicken with honey And a salad of dried shrimps At six in the morning To her audience sipping tea Over unbrushed teeth Another channel aired A Tamil remake Of a Hindi thriller Where the hero flexed his musculature Splashed gore wherever he went Overdoing his Hindi counterpart Like a blazing comet in close orbit Men on their morning stroll Paused to greet one another And debated the harm The boom, light and sound Caused to animals and birds As crows over their head Seated on a swaying palm Cawed in utter disdain An India of diversity In the abandon of Diwali felicity Where each had a vision Where each was right or wrong According to perceptions Mixed in a turmoil In a democratic whirlpool A fearsome Charybdis I sat there watching The din, light and cacophony Looking at just one lamp Amidst the thousands of Diwali That burnt a golden wick Along the universal spine Where the noise and light Melted into naught In a silence which said All are not But just one and that is all Here I remain an Indian to the hilt And that is what makes me and my nation click HAPPY DIWALI TO ALL!