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"Festivals are occasions not to just make new friends but to demolish the walls & build bridges, that's togetherness"...Me.
In this month when I walk on the roads in Diwali times, shops selling lanterns are lit with bright light & colours of those lanterns, many buildings get face lift by painting, showrooms, malls are decorated to welcome the visitors, in a way entire society’s mood is up, ready to spend, happily & you know, its Diwali time! This time’s Diwali is more special as it has got State elections along, i.e. just post Diwali our State’s assembly elections are aligned which means the festive times will be more wonderful for the masses, knowing the way elections are contested nowadays. And at the same time, I wonder how many politicians can really enjoy the Diwali as it’s in a way exam time for them & I can imagine their mind set as for diploma & later engineering, every time Diwali is just before semester exams taking away any mood of celebration due the tension of the exams ahead for me, yet I don’t pity for the politicians & for the obvious reasons, lol! Ok, leave away politics but this festival really has got something which changes the mood of the entire nation’s population & if something can keep this diversified 150 crore population bound together with one common thread, then, its cricket, its movies & then its Diwali! Rain or less rains, or even drought or there may be war going around the globe & inflation yet this time of the year everybody tries to open up their pockets & spend to make him/herself happy along with the close ones!
This is where (or say how) we can use the Diwali to introspect the way society is going on the wrong track as never before, I have seen or experienced the unspoken unrest (even hatred or anger) among the classes of the society against each other! Every day I open WhatsApp groups, watch Insta/FB posts & I find someone forwarding or posting forwarded messages which spits venom (literally) for “others” which we consider are not as “ours”! These walls between “others” & “ours” are slowly being built dividing even between the age-old friends, under the name of caste, religion, cadre (Direct or Promote, types), gender, region, State or even profession! People are being categorized first & then injected with the poison of all above types, taking away the very basic thing on which our diverse rich country or say society has stood for thousands of years! There always have been categories, castes, religions & so existed the differences but never they have been used to make us fight against each other which I am seeing happening around every day more bitterly! On my school group formed on WhatsApp, when it started few years back everybody was happy for the unions after four decades but today what I read on this group is someone posting some forward about some political party or religion or caste & immediately other reacting to these forwards & heated arguments starts, to such extent that people threaten/ curse each other’s to personal level, I wonder are these the same innocent kids which were sharing each other’s dabba without even knowing surnames leave apart caste or religion! And this is not on just school group, even on my engineering group my friends post hatred spreading news (mostly fake) or messages about religion or profession forgetting there are all sorts of friends on this group from all religions & professions, some are Muslim, some are North Indians, some are in govt job, some are builders (me, lol) & none of us become friends with each other for what we are by birth or by profession but because we shared the same class room but we have forgotten this basic togetherness today! This is where the importance of festivals like Diwali is much more than before as we can make this occasion to find that lost togetherness by understanding the purpose of celebrating festivals like Diwali, is what reason for me calling Ye Diwali Togetherneswali!
As if on one side many of us have prospered & have become so-called successful, then many more are not that lucky on financial, educational or such front & that’s one main reason for the ill entities which want to divide us, to build the dividing walls faster & easier between our society! When the society is divided the terms like “ours & theirs”, then it’s too much vulnerable for self-destruction & for that the only remedy or solution is togetherness, which comes by sharing, affection, understanding, kindness & love, but unfortunately, we are forgetting all these terms & that’s why the walls dividing us are becoming stronger! Let’s use the happiness & joy with which we celebrate Diwali to break down the walls dividing us & once again become the innocent, lovable young ones we were as that will only save us or else we won’t need any nasty neighbouring country to invade us as there will be nothing left to invade! And all we have to do is decide some simple things & act on them, first one is stop spreading hatred, even by sharing forwards which you don’t have written or created! Second is stop categorizing people on things like caste, religions, status, region, or such things but accept them for the qualities they have & respect them for what they are! I am no Saint or some Baba or Shri Shri Shri types person but I have understood one simple thing, before anything I am not just a human being & a living being too & so is another person or a dog or a tiger or a butterfly or a tree & I must respect them for they too are a living being! And if you respect something then only you can think about that thing & then you start caring & eventually loving that thing, so start this Diwali, is all I wanted to share!
I know many of you will laugh at me for this sharing, some even may say (behind me of course) that what I think of myself some Swami or what, but let me tell you something, it’s not what I think of myself or you think of me is going to change the downslope road our society has taken but what we do to correct our course will only decide ours & our kid’s fate, & you may be reading this piece even after Diwali; yet, for doing a right thing, no time is wrong time! So, let Diwali's brightness help us to demolish these walls between us forever & all it takes is just a small act of love & kindness, go ahead, take that first step for our future & make this Diwali, Togethernesswali !!
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Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...
https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345
Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying!
https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/01/choosing-your-home-along-with-future-of.html
http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2023/02/blog-post.html
Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345
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ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right Sir.
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