Diwali: That Of The Rich And That Of The Poor

By: Shariq Khan

The sky is emblazoned with different colours. Children dressed in their best clothing stand and watch the celebration with their mothers. Smiles turn into wholehearted laughter when they receive their own share of firecrackers from their fathers.

Good victors over evil.

That is how the epic Ramayana ends.

Image by Sowrirajan

The sky is darkened again after every blast. Children dressed in their best clothing sit and wait with their mothers for the next penny to be thrown their way. Sobs turn into uncontrollable weeping when their fathers come and take those pennies away.

Evil rises again.

Ram is nowhere to be seen.

I sat that morning, and with all the warmth in my heart I was wishing everyone on my contacts list a happy Diwali. I could not recognize most of the names but I wished them all the same. After all, it was my social network. The wishing was not about 'socializing', it was about 'networking'. Some of the people replied, while some ignored it and some others must have trashed it. Just as I had reached a point of completion, I received a message from a person whose ideas and opinions have been inspiring me a lot lately.

What is the meaning of diwali to the under privileged, the down trodden people? Diwali is the symbol of victory of good over evil. In the 21st century poverty is one of the biggest evils. Happy diwali though.

I then got to thinking.
Diwali. The festival of lights.
Like every year, millions of firecrackers are launched, casting their light on the night skies. The meanings behind this event are shared by everyone in this partially 'modernized' world we are in today. One part being that which belongs to the rich: it's a grand world. The other part is that of the poor: it's vast.

The worlds of the rich and poor overlap but never seem to merge. Do they? The upper class avoid the poor like the plague but it is worrying how, at the same time, they take the liberty to use the common spaces of the two worlds to their liking just as they do on Diwali. They paint their happiness all over the sky for the poor to watch. Si they try to eradicate the plague altogether.
The poor are not allowed to cross into their worlds. Guards and fences fend them off when they so try. The rich on the other hand, buy whatever they need from the 'other' world and continue intruding into the boundaries. Most astonishing is the way that they do it in. Coca Cola is one brilliant example that the person who sent the message to me loves to give. First, Coca Cola buys land in the poor man's world at pathetic (or rather emphatic, depending on the world you live in) rates. Then it drains the rivers that were originally a part of the common spaces and in return it shares a 'Sunshine Wali Asha' with the poor.
Are there actually any boundaries even left in the two world's anymore? The last time I checked, the richest of streets were full of the poorest of people. Pleading and Begging for a penny the kids stood right next to the Mercedes and Audis: the symbols of richness worldwide. In the very first place, who created the poor world? I do not need to answer that question for you.

Our world against theirs. Image by Blemished Paradise

Every Diwali, many show their compassion for the under privileged by providing them the privilege of crackers. To describe it simply, Compassion is stupid at times. The Compassionate fail to recognize the fact that the crackers were made by the hands of those same kids.
Many others show compassion by sharing sweets on Diwali. Another subtle announcement of the power that they enjoy over the other world. We donate sweets on one given day and then fade out just as quickly from the 'dirty' world.
The ones who cant deal with the subtlety and are even more compassionate donate money. After all, Money is what the richness is all about!
Are money, sweets and crackers what the poor are asking for? Will that help clean their 'dirty' world?
Many believe it would. I, as idealist as one may call me, do not.
Whichever way, that is what Diwali is for the Rich. Celebration and compassion. But the original question was not that. It was

What is the meaning of Diwali to the under priveleged, the down trodden people?

I wonder why answering that question is so hard when it is so obvious: for them, every Eid, Diwali and Christmas brings with it the same hope of being able to make more money. For those kids that survive in the Cracker factories it signals the beginning of another year of hardships but of life nevertheless. Do we not know this? Poverty is the evil that grips our society today and the measures we take to eradicate it are not enough. The peculiar characteristic of poverty that makes it so dangerous is that it kills the poor and yet spreads at an ever growing rate. The rich are under complete control of this Ravana of the 21st century and every Diwali he laughs when the crackers we burst plunge someone's life into darkness.

When the Fire Went Missing: Children working in cracker factories of Sivakasi. Image by Balaji Maheshwar

These kids of Sivakasi and many other villages from the poor world in India work on every Diwali to light up the skies for you. They know your wants but you do not care about their needs. Theirs is the other world after all. Though the factories that they are being made to risk their lives in were never a part of their world. Diwali in their world was about the lamps that drove the darkness away and not the crackers that have driven intense darkness into their lives.
It is time now for us to recognize and take responsibility for what we have done to these people. The simplest of steps might be to spend a day with them and to understand what their real problems are. Money that we donate to them will last them for a few moments. The food will keep them fed for a few more hours. But if we spend an hour with them it will impact them and us alike for a lifetime. On this Diwali and the next to come the easiest way of helping would be by stopping the use of firecrackers.
It's hard to do, isn't it? What is Diwali without crackers? Well, I'll leave that on you to answer for yourself. Happy Diwali though.