Erma
Bombeck:
"There's nothing
sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child."
Charles Dickens:
“Lost friend, lost child, lost parent, sister, brother, husband, wife, we will not so discard you! You shall hold your cherished places in our Diwali hearts, and by our Diwali fires; and in the season of immortal hope, and on the birthday of immortal mercy, we will shut out Nothing!”
Sorry, dear old Charlie for my some deft find and replace! How dare I? Because just like Christmas hearts we have Diwali- in my case high BP- hearts and you bet we have Diwali fires and then some. (BTW-Avoid coming to Pune from 7 PM to 11 PM tonight!)
This Diwali I do have a lost friend, lost both parents of a friend, lost parent, cousin-sister, aunts, grand-ma&pa, artists, teachers, dog, cat, bird, town...And I will shut out nothing...I can't...until of course dementia kicks in
Happy Diwali 2012
Fire crackers have become so weird that if indeed some day I come across a volcano like in the picture below I will think of it as no more than a flower pot cracker!
Artist: Charles Addams, The New Yorker, 13 June 1964
Tribals in the picture above feel the gods are not angry.
I am not so sure about goddess Laxmi. They say Laxmi Puja Muhurat is after 6 PM today. The goddess Laxmi must be tough and fearless because she dare enter our homes during those hours avoiding serious injuries to her limbs, ears and lungs.