This Diwali, hold heart
Recession in the time of Diwali is as crippling for the festive population as the pullout of the K-line serials are for the avid couch potatoes.
Over the years, Diwali has done well to stick to its prime-time slot and has led as usher of the long year-end festivities which have Christmas and New Year Eve on mass agenda.
But, this year, Diwali has somehow not been able to pick up the spirit -- it has been jaded, listless and totally out of sync. Not just the bazaars are half empty but also the terror scare has done it in. Not even the Dhan Teras blasts of 2006 had created so much of caution. But this year's city to city serial killings by terrorists, people have opted to live on the safer side of caution.
Topping this unusual festival time hesitance is the fact that everything is hit by the global meltdown. Shopkeepers, fed up by thin attendance, have uniformly raised the prices of their products. But even this has not made up for their shortfall.
Then there is this case of global warming, which in market terms means, the entire batch of woollens are lying unbought. Who would want to even look at bulky jackets when the airconditioners are still running?
As one shop-keeper said, there has been a close to 60 per cent loss to business due to terror and the stock market failure.
As we all know, much like Christmas, Diwali is homecoming time for most families in India; it is also time for thanks-giving to elders, gifting to youngsters and a break from office stress. Over the years, Diwali has changed from an unquestioned monarch of festivals to a drawing room subject for ridicule.
You are told the crackers need to be made extinct on grounds of pollution and health risks. You are told that splurging on Diwali is as much a waste as the marriage feast you generally hold. You are told that in the time of terror, fire-cracker manufacturers have been ejected from the licence lists. The obvious fallout of this is a vertical climb in prices. An anaar this season is selling for as much as Rs 500 and an innocuousfuljhari packet for more than Rs 200!
That is, if you can find the patakhawallahs. Just three days to go for Diwali and reporters on beat had to hunt down firecracker sellers. There were some in Chandni Chowk but none in Khan Market -- both talking about the very personal patakha slowdown which, one seller put it as "bigger than the stocks wallah slowdown."
May be, like the oil price turmoil, this too will pass. May be, your saved money will not lose its worth. May be. But till then, one has to keep fingers crossed -- not a happy situation for anyone on Diwali, the festival of good over bad.
One still remembers that not more than even a decade back, the discussion was always about whether the outside diyas would be of desi ghee or mustard oil. Then the ghee got restricted to the puja place 21 diyas which next shrunk to eleven ghee ke diyas. Outside decoration changed into electric lighting and that too slowly went into Chinese innovation.
This Diwali will be hugely different. There will be lights but subdued; there will be patakhas but not beyond 10 pm; there will be gambling but no smoking; there will be peace but only brittle; there will be exchange of gifts but as restricted as cash flow.
Change is the law of nature but it is always painful. In the context of Diwali, the eternal dry fruits have been replaced with everything from cookies to chocolates to gadgets. But one thing remains unchanged -- the collective public will to celebrate despite losses at all levels -- to human life, to law and order, to personal pockets, to job cuts, to inflation and to price rise.
That's the spirit, one would say.
Over the years, Diwali has done well to stick to its prime-time slot and has led as usher of the long year-end festivities which have Christmas and New Year Eve on mass agenda.
But, this year, Diwali has somehow not been able to pick up the spirit -- it has been jaded, listless and totally out of sync. Not just the bazaars are half empty but also the terror scare has done it in. Not even the Dhan Teras blasts of 2006 had created so much of caution. But this year's city to city serial killings by terrorists, people have opted to live on the safer side of caution.
Topping this unusual festival time hesitance is the fact that everything is hit by the global meltdown. Shopkeepers, fed up by thin attendance, have uniformly raised the prices of their products. But even this has not made up for their shortfall.
Then there is this case of global warming, which in market terms means, the entire batch of woollens are lying unbought. Who would want to even look at bulky jackets when the airconditioners are still running?
As one shop-keeper said, there has been a close to 60 per cent loss to business due to terror and the stock market failure.
As we all know, much like Christmas, Diwali is homecoming time for most families in India; it is also time for thanks-giving to elders, gifting to youngsters and a break from office stress. Over the years, Diwali has changed from an unquestioned monarch of festivals to a drawing room subject for ridicule.
You are told the crackers need to be made extinct on grounds of pollution and health risks. You are told that splurging on Diwali is as much a waste as the marriage feast you generally hold. You are told that in the time of terror, fire-cracker manufacturers have been ejected from the licence lists. The obvious fallout of this is a vertical climb in prices. An anaar this season is selling for as much as Rs 500 and an innocuousfuljhari packet for more than Rs 200!
That is, if you can find the patakhawallahs. Just three days to go for Diwali and reporters on beat had to hunt down firecracker sellers. There were some in Chandni Chowk but none in Khan Market -- both talking about the very personal patakha slowdown which, one seller put it as "bigger than the stocks wallah slowdown."
May be, like the oil price turmoil, this too will pass. May be, your saved money will not lose its worth. May be. But till then, one has to keep fingers crossed -- not a happy situation for anyone on Diwali, the festival of good over bad.
One still remembers that not more than even a decade back, the discussion was always about whether the outside diyas would be of desi ghee or mustard oil. Then the ghee got restricted to the puja place 21 diyas which next shrunk to eleven ghee ke diyas. Outside decoration changed into electric lighting and that too slowly went into Chinese innovation.
This Diwali will be hugely different. There will be lights but subdued; there will be patakhas but not beyond 10 pm; there will be gambling but no smoking; there will be peace but only brittle; there will be exchange of gifts but as restricted as cash flow.
Change is the law of nature but it is always painful. In the context of Diwali, the eternal dry fruits have been replaced with everything from cookies to chocolates to gadgets. But one thing remains unchanged -- the collective public will to celebrate despite losses at all levels -- to human life, to law and order, to personal pockets, to job cuts, to inflation and to price rise.
That's the spirit, one would say.
Published October 26, 2008;http://www.dailypioneer.com/130448/This-Diwali-hold-heart.html
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