Coil: One diya lights another which lights another..

by Vidyaratha Kissoon
“Is which day is the right day man” the elderly security guard asked. It was the night of the Saturday Diwali.

I had seen him moving around the trench in my area and was wondering if he needed a toilet. Place was darkish there.

He was picking puraine (lotus) leaf for his employers who were also celebrating on the ‘Saturday night’. The leaf is used to serve food.

“You know , dey traditional.. , you coming around later? “

A bus conductor had asked earlier in the day , almost the same “Is which day is the right day, why this problem now?”

There are no real answers as the battle of the Diwali dates continued this year. The Government sided with the people who chose the 29^th October and declared it a national holiday. The Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha and others insisted on the 30^th October 2016.

It is not easy. The Minister of Public Security is not King Solomon. It seems he had to choose between two dates. In this society of either/or there were no creative ways to making the holiday – like maybe Monday 31 October so that people who don’t work on weekends could have long weekend. Or maybe just abandoning the holiday all together.

So the holiday is declared. The security guard, the minibus conductor, many others do not like the uncertainty. Well meaning non-Hindus who like Diwali don’t like the uncertainty. Those who like bombs and squibs probably are enjoying the uncertainty – two days to wreak havoc.

In Georgetown, the night of the ‘official Diwali’ becomes the night of the motorcade. There might be some fascination with how resistance to the ‘official’ is manifested.

Sunday morning after the official Diwali Holiday and the newspapers have more motorcade pictures than of houses lit up with Diyas.

Guyana Prize winning writer Subraj Singh has written a glowing tribute in the Sunday Chronicle to the motorcade tradition in Guyana. The motorcade is the only spectacle in Guyana which probably draws more crowds than the other spectacles.

Aliens watching on would probably think that Diwali in Guyana is about the motorcade. Just as the Diwali story is about the triumph of righteousness over unrighteousness, it seems that the motorcade has triumphed over those who lit their diyas on the night of the motorcade.

The pictures year after the year, start to blur and look almost the same but it seems that participants in the motorcade are trying new things. The Chronicle story tries to give some of those details this year.

There are no stories, of the other Diwali traditions which survive. There are no stories of those who still insist on using Diyas to light up even as electric lights and so become more convenient and less
resistant to breeze.

There are no stories of the people make the Diyas. The anecdotes are that way back most people made their own Diyas from mud. It was part of the worship. Some people made their own oil. People made their own wicks. There are no stories of the families who might still maintain the traditional kilns and help us to not get to a stage where Diyas are not mass imported from China or some other friendly nation.

My favourite Diwali story is of Minister within the Ministry of Culture, Nicolette Henry lighting a diya with the Cove and John Ashram. The Minister had come in for severe criticism and calls for her resignation after the Jubilee fiascos earlier this year.

The Cove and John Ashram is also going through its own janjhat with the secular Court having to intervene to stop one set of Diya lighting people from kicking out another set of Diya lighting people.

In lighting her diya, the Minister reportedly said ““My hope for this Diwali celebration is that there be reconciliation where there may have been division; that there be rejection of violence; and that together we may appreciate and enjoy each other’s festivals as a common sign to the world and of our commitment as Guyanese to mutual goodwill and faith in each other,”

The message is nice. Mutual goodwill and faith in each other. It is not an easy human trait. It is difficult to have goodwill towards those who are bombing Diwali. Reconciliation and the rejection of violence. Nice things.

The PPP in its 2016 Diwali message ominously referred to those who “who are seeking to distort the true meaning and significance of Diwali out of narrow partisan interest and calls on them to desist from playing politics out of this sacred festival.”. They also talked about the “the darkness which now pervade this land will be replaced by a more enlighten dispensation, one in which the full creativity and the expressed will of all Guyanese will prevail.. “.

The PNC might have been talking about the same darkness, or not, in “Let Deepavali, this year, be a time of deep reflection, and the making of a solemn resolve to bring our nation out of the darkness and into the light”

The PPP had announced itself when in power as the bearer of light.

In Guyana’s madness, there seems to be difference even in understanding when it is light and when it dark.

The PNC in 2014 had described the darkness :-

“The symbolism of the triumph of light over darkness now carries a powerful message for the Guyanese nation.
The national environment is polluted by:
The high incidence of domestic abuse;
Uncontrolled lawlessness, armed banditry and criminality which has created an atmosphere of fear and insecurity;
Barbarous murders have become a daily occurrence;
Corruption abounds at all levels of the society;
Our suicide rate has reached record levels;
Narco-trafficking appears to be increasingly out of the control of the authorities;
Indiscipline, in schools, homes and on the road abounds; and
Partisanship, racial and political discrimination defile our national life.
In the circumstances, the PNCR invokes the blessings of Mother Lakshmi to end this darkness so that our dear land can once again experience peace, prosperity, good governance, equity, security, a culture of civility, and good order.”

In 2015, it seems that Mother Lakshmi answered their prayers and the PNC and others won the elections. The trouble though is that the light to dispel the darkness they described is not easy to inspire if you trying on your own.

The AFC and other coalition members did not have any messages about darkness or light this year.

A man told me on Facebook that people are looking to the skies to prove which night is the darkest night to justify their claims of which is right and wrong. There is a competition it seems , to look for darkness, rather to look for light.

A young man who will try to celebrate Diwali both nights reminded me of one of my favourite messages. Many of the pandits would have talked about the recognition of inner light, and of sharing that light. The young man hoped that people could see that as you can use one diya to light another, so we have to try to uplift each other and share light.

The diyas do not have to the same in size. The wicks do not have the same in size. The light though could still be shared. Yep, this is a a cliché which does not seem to transform the real world.

It is fanciful to imagine that diyas which are lit on the different Diwali nights in dispute could be used to share light with each other.

Diwali is supposed to be more than the visual spectacle , and prayers and nice messages. There is supposed to be faith in action.

Light instead of bombs.

Maybe in addition to disputing about the dates of Diwali and other Hindu festivals next year, the disparate organisations will join together in dealing with bombs and other destructive influences.

Maybe the light in the people who support the political parties who are in charge of the darkness will be used to figure out a way to get GPL and the rest of Guyana to work.

It will not be easy.