| “Celebrating Deepavali means a lot. It
means being with my family, even if I have to travel thousands of
miles for it. Diwali is to me what Christmas is to the western world,”
says Samrat Deep Bhandari, a CA based in London, just about summing
up the spirit but there is more.
Essentially, a time to be spent with family and friends, like Atul
Celly, Proprietor, Inbound Tourism (travel coordinators) says, “It
is an occasion to meet elders whom you don’t otherwise don’t
spend much time with. Diwali is all about keeping the traditions
alive.”
But things do change as they are wont to, so often. Even within
the country one is witness to new concepts and changed cultural
parameters. This year is no different. With the Net making inroads
into homes like never before, it is definitely ‘in’ to
celebrate Diwali online, where nothing less then ‘virtual crackers’
await you.
The charm of meeting up friends and relatives personally may never
go away but there are those, who would rather gift a puja thali
of your choice, light a diya, or better still, shop at
the click of the mouse, on the net, without stepping out of the
house. Diwali was never this happening before. “We couldn't
have ever foreseen something like this in our wildest imaginations,”
says Amita, Probationary Officer, Reserve Bank of India, Delhi.
“As kids, we used to plan for Diwali a month in advance. A
gathering was a foregone conclusion. Today, we are hooked to the
Net, chatting with family and friends, planning festivities from
long distances and yet celebrating together,” she adds. So
far, yet so near!
And, if you thought children would protest, you couldn’t be
more wrong! Kids today have taken to the cause of pollution control,
pledging not to burst crackers all thanks to awareness drives in
schools. According to Manas, a Std. VII student of DPS, Vasant Vihar,
New Delhi, “Crackers are fun whether virtual or real. So why
pollute the environs when you can have unlimited access to bursting
them on the Net!”
And there are those who agree with him, “I don’t believe
in firecrackers anymore. Never believed in the puja part of it.
But given the life I lead, Diwali is a day off, which gives me time
to go home and be with my parents. The festival does not hold much
significance for me but I know it does for my family. And it gives
me lots of happiness to be able to spend it with them,” says
Maitreyi Shankar, a final year student at the Tata Institute of
Social Sciences in Mumbai.
But since the festival also heralds a new financial year for the
Indian business community, “Diwali is a combination of a holiday
and lots of work. This is the gifting season of the year. So till
the very end I am running helter-skelter buying gifts, arranging
things for delivery and distributing them personally in some cases
etc. But yes, it is time for festivities and celebrations too. It’s
the cards playing season for those who want to earn that extra buck,”
says Dipin Kapoor, Director, Olive E-Business Pvt. Ltd.
Diwali helps turn over a new leaf financially for those from other
religions as well. Says Mohammad Shareef, a Muslim fruit merchant
in Darya Ganj, Delhi, “Hindu festivals are a major source of
livelihood. I know that it’s the most auspicious festival for
Hindus, but it is no less important for us either. Three days before
Diwali, people get into the festive mood and star buying fruits.
We earn a sizable amount from loose fruits but a major part comes
from ready-made baskets that we make in different sizes. We enjoy
wishing our customers a Happy Diwali because he is also helping
us earn our livelihood. In fact, a warm welcome with verbal greeting
does wonders for the sales.”
Strictly speaking in the “traditional sense of the term the
festival has undergone change and taken with it the religious element,”
says Kapoor and filmmaker Meghna Gulzar concurs: “I don’t
think Diwali per se is that important any more. I see a lot of consumerism
and commercial elements taking over, which is fine but only to a
certain extent. The booming economy and the need to just blow up
money should be restricted to reasonable limits strictly. On the
other hand, with Karva Chauth and Husband’s Day being
as significantly auspicious as Holi or Diwali, one can’t blame
the youth for frittering away their energies and most of their moolah
too. Since films no longer sustain you with big images, the flip
side is that everything else is larger-than-life, with fun and masti
dominating our lives.”
With inputs from Meenakshi Sinha / Meeta Chaitanya / Nivedita
Mishra / Khalid Ansari / Arnab Banerjee
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