Yay! It’s Diwali 
झाला आजचा प्रकाश जुना कालचा काळोख,
चांदण्याला किरणांचा सोनसळी अभिषेक,
सारे रोजचे तरीही नवा सुवास सुवास..
शुभेच्छा दिवाळीच्या !
Click above thumbnail to view the Diwali e-card.
A Happy Diwali, the best of health,
A happy heart, enough of wealth,
All this and more are wished for you,
For a Happy Diwali and a Prosperous New year too !
composed by me 
.
बाबा..! विमान..!! (Dad, look! a plane!!)
A little girl exclaimed with enthusiasm as she pointed out a tiny airplane to her dad. She was standing at the window next to my seat in the suburban train, watching the plane gliding idly across the sky. The train was moving and the plane was fast disappearing out of her view. She started struggling to catch a last glimpse of the plane thru the corner of the window. It was so silly, and funny, but the little girl was enjoying it. Inadvertently I caught myself doing the same.
Suddenly I realized it, and withdrew myself immediately, lest ‘others’ see me doing what I was doing – watching a plane in the sky. Grown-ups are not supposed to get excited by little objects in the sky. Grown-up’s are supposed to behave like grown ups and watching planes is certainly not a ‘grown-up’ thing to do. These are the rules grown-up’s make for other grown-up’s. What a pity.
I admit, I get excited looking at aircrafts, jets, and other objects flying high in the sky. In fact, I get so excited, that I trace the object until it becomes an infinitely small dot in the sky. My friends think I’m an immature kid, especially the ones who live in the vicinity of the airport.
Children are innocent little beings. They follow their instincts and listen to their heart. As we grow up, we try to do things that are socially acceptable and respectable in the scheme of things we have designed ourselves. This often means restricting ourselves from listening to what our heart says. “Dance like nobody is watching, sing like nobody is listening” is an excellent quote, but it’s easier said than done. I’m not going to preach any more philosophy, but arrive straight to the resolution – Don’t suppress your heart’s voice.
Why should I deny myself the pleasure of doing what I really like? Who really cares about it? The next time I see a plane through the window of my train, I am going to enjoy watching it. I’m going to let my heart act unrestrained.
It was a long time ago. I was young and full of energy. I swam freely in the large ocean body with millions of my brothers. Oh how I remember those wonderful days. I played with the fish and rode on the back of the seahorses. At times I splashed against the shore
or danced in the stormy sea. Life was full of fun until you started shining brightly. You were so strong on us. One by one, I lost many of my dear brothers. They simply evaporated away. I was still grieving and recovering from the shock when you decided it was my turn to go. You pumped heat into me and made me lighter. I felt funny and awful. I was rising up with great speed and everyone was looking at me. They were bidding me good-bye, but I was not sure of what was happening. Suddenly I got ejected out my home, the dear ocean. You are evil. You converted me into a gaseous state and took me away from my people…
I rose into the sky. Higher and higher, until I reached the doors of the heaven. Somehow I felt wonderful again. The memories of my home started fading away. I was enjoying this place now. I met some of my brothers from the ocean, but I also made new friends. Just like me, they had come to the sky; but from places such as rivers and lakes. Every minute we met the new arrivals. I took pride in showing them thru the vastness of the sky. Sometimes we would get together and make shapes in the sky. The human beings used to exclaim, “Look! That cloud looks like a duck”. The next moment we changed the formation and the duck shape disappeared. Those were naughty days. I traveled a lot thanks to uncle wind. He took me places far and wide, in formations of white, gray and black.
Slowly our numbers grew. We started playing hide and seek. Covering you up and then suddenly exposing you! I was bright white and you started turning me dark and black. I was scared and terrified about my fate. I stopped being funny and became serious with my brothers. We gathered together in such large numbers that you were blocked completely. Some of the brothers broke out into a fight. There were grumbling noises and sparks that lit the whole sky. Those were dark days indeed.
I started gaining weight and the old feeling came back. I was undergoing changes inside me again. My brothers were experiencing the same too and were pleading for help. Everything was dark since we had covered you up. The uneasiness and discomfort grew because the space was insufficient to hold us all. Finally, with one swift action, all
of us were released from the gates of the sky. Falling freely, we were gushing down with a sense of urgency. I started recalling my home back in the ocean and my brothers said we are going back home. Everyone was feeling happy again.
Mother Earth welcomed us. She was very hungry and missed all of us. She accepted everyone with open arms. I took a long journey thru the forest, stream and river and finally entered the ocean. Now I’m playing with the seaweeds and watching a ship cruising by.
Home sweet home.
Faith or easy money?
It is incorrect to link scientific and economic progress to people’s faith in religion. As a teenager, I always used to believe that as 
we make technological progress, people’s faith in God would decrease, and some day eventually ‘God’ would remain as a concept limited to books. How wrong I was.
When we shifted to Mumbai, we used to stay in a rented apartment. On the roadside there was a huge banyan tree and under the tree was a stone smeared with vermilion. I remember passersby quickly praying to the stone while on their way. Someone offered flowers, others lighted essence sticks (agarbattis) or diyas (earthen lamps). By the time we moved out of the rented premises, the stone god had a small home for itself was enclosed by three tiny walls and a roof.
I visited the area few days on the occasion of Dasara (Dusshera in Hindi). The sight left me shocked. The banyan tree was no more. Instead there was this ugly looking huge temple structure, occupying the entire footpath and encroaching upon the road. Outside the temple was a queue. A queue so long that it would have taken an hour to enter the temple for darshan. The streets were dotted with flower shops and puja offerings. There were beggars too.
Now this is what I call economic development. From a ubiquitous stone, someone built this huge temple structure. And now people were queuing up outside! It provided livelihood to scores of people who sold religious wares outside, and also a gang of beggars who would chase you until you pay them.
Never mind the obstructions in traffic or the unclean kept surroundings. This is the age of neighborhood school, neighborhood supermarket and neighborhood God. No longer do we have to visit places far away, there are facilities everywhere, making it so convenient.
Soon a temple trust would be formed to legally squander the money people offered to God. Nobody is concerned about the fate of the money they donate to temples. We have been taught not to question something that is a matter of faith. Nonsense! Building and running a temple is the best profession. Selfish this may sound, but prove me wrong.
Happy 26th wedding aniversary to my mom and dad.
They make such a wonderful couple
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