Reflecting on Diwali 2009

Diwali is my favourite festival. One year, Diwali was on my birthday and I felt very special. As a child, Diwali was about diyas and lighting up and the stories and eating.
As an adult, , I am preoccupied with keeping the diyas lit though I am also thankful for the breeze. 

On the bridge, this Diwali, one of the diyas survived the draught. (not the picture above). After an hour, it remained lit. I am not sure what the science was, behind the material of the wick, the thickness of the wick and the time it spends in the oil. I would love to experiment to find out, but the time just rushes. As I get older, I seem to be obsessed with finding 'meaning' in things. So when I was coming home Diwali night, I saw this one diya staying lit when others went out , I thought of hope and how important it is to keep hope alive..

This year Diwali was celebrated with many happenings. Roger Khan is sentenced, and many of his supporters in Guyana and abroad feel that a great wrong has been done while others want to know what he got in return for his favours to the Government. I know that many families across the ethnic divide in Guyana deal with cocaine addicts and the resources which are consumed in the trafficking of drugs, and the prevention of the trafficking in drugs could be diverted to ensuring that people do not use drugs, including alcohol.

This Diwali, while the Indian Commemoration Trust held its Diwali celebrations, the people at the mandir which I attended were trying to chase out a drunk Hindu man.    The Indian Commemoration Trust has a founder who is renowned for being the brains behind Guyana's largest liquor company. So while the flame of the diya of the Hindu drunk man wavers, the diya of the Hindu maker of liquor apparently thrives. And the devotees of the mandir shouted to the drunk man to go away while other devotees in another place praised and supported the Hindu who make and sell the liquor

There is no secret that the sale of alcohol is a major commercial activity for many Hindus who probably have their Laxmi murti close to where they sell the rum. Santan Dharma teaches us though, that what we give to the Universe we get back. 

Diwali Motorcade night, Pandit Reepu Daman Persaud reportedly said he hoped that President Jagdeo gets a third term. Hindus are free to use their festivals to do what they want, and if the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha wishes to use Diwali to move Guyana back to the Constitution which created the horrors of the 1980s, then they are free to do so. Compassion is not easy, and I thought of the thousands of Guyanese who loved Burnham and Hoyte There must have been many supporters of Burnham who also wanted him to live forever and be President for eternity. As a Hindu though, I am ashamed that a Pandit who thousands  respect as their Guru would want to contribute to a fractured nation. The goal of the Constitution reform was to prevent any person from thinking that they could be President for life. Doesn't the PPP have any body else to offer as President? For ever, at all?

This Diwali, I love how the leaders of the A,B,C countries lit Diyas. It seems that President Jagdeo is not the only President who has to try to please Hindu constituencies. I respect the leaders of the other political parties, Robert Corbin and Trotman for not pretending and trying to please any perceived constituency. Robert Corbin during the 2003 debate on gay rights was clear that he was aligned to the Evangelical Christians who were opposed to the amendment. Some of those Christians were opposed to the Diwali Galee on Camp Street, some of the supporters painting over the diya rangoli on the avenue. (My cousin tells me his former Hindu converted to Christian inlaws do not want any diyas in the house) Mr Corbin is clear about his beliefs. There is so much spin to make President Jagdeo a humble Hindu leader when it is obvious the man is not interested.. his enjoyment of pork is evident of his rejection of the traditional mores which many Hindus  subscribe to. So it is it fascinating to read especially in good old Chronicle of how people try to attribute Hindu values to President Jagdeo.

So that one diya which stayed lit.
I can be consumed by bitterness and anger and fedupedness, this Diwali. As I am writing this, four small birds flew into my hotel room. I am not sure what that means, but they were close, they now gone.  So it is with diyas, beautiful while the light is there and then the light seemingly disappears. The thing is, the light never goes though, you can keep lighting over and over.

 Our Universal Peace Prayer asks that our 'enemies' should be at peace. Peace in Guyana is subjective. Alexander Village had a 'peaceful' Diwali, with heavy police presence and presence of Ministers (who like pork too). They are eternally grateful could have that, I am happy for them and I hope that things in Guyana would change so that all of us in Guyana could have the same kind of peaceful Diwali , without police or politicians. 

Diwali Day, I read Obama's speech on gay rights to the Human Rights Campaign. He makes nice speeches. Not many world leaders would acknowledge their LGBT citizens. He lit a diya in the week after he made that speech.