Keen to learn more about inclusive workplaces? Want to be inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community? Download our special report with Randstad India on making Inclusion without Exception happen
The Delhi smog has left the residents literally gasping for breath. Is it worth a day's merriment? Maybe it is time to #ReInventFestivals?
The Delhi smog has left the residents literally gasping for breath. Is it worth a day’s merriment? Maybe it is time to #ReInventFestivals?
Festival times are – indulging in merriment, carring forward traditions and spending time with family. But as we come across disturbing images of rivers of blood in Dhaka to the dense smog in Delhi, I can’t help but think – one day of merriment, several days of miseries! Is it worth it?
We say education helps us to see the flip side, does it really?
In the run up to Diwali, pollution was on the top of the mind for everyone. Posts were written, statuses were updated, tweets galore and a war cry – NO CRACKERS, GREEN DIWALI, SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT. The future looked promising given the amount of buzz around. And boy, did it happen? Well looking at the density and intensity of the Delhi smog, looks like they were mere words after all!
Yes, I agree the burning of crops and the direction of the wind has made it worse, but that doesn’t rationalise our actions. For a change, instead of finding excuses and hiding behind pretextes let’s just take responsibility for our own actions and stop passing the buck. The buck indeed needs to stop with each one of us.
So we asked our readers would they consider an alternative way of spending Diwali. This is what they said.
via GIPHY
The reinvention comes from less focus on crackers, more on just spending time 🙂 #WomenOnTheMove https://t.co/vjumhgA9EH — Aparna V Singh (@editorsahiba) October 26, 2016
The reinvention comes from less focus on crackers, more on just spending time 🙂 #WomenOnTheMove https://t.co/vjumhgA9EH
— Aparna V Singh (@editorsahiba) October 26, 2016
For me ‘traditional’ part of Diwali is that it’s about family. Like to spend with parents or ILs #WomenOnTheMovehttps://t.co/vjumhgA9EH — Aparna V Singh (@editorsahiba) October 26, 2016
For me ‘traditional’ part of Diwali is that it’s about family. Like to spend with parents or ILs #WomenOnTheMovehttps://t.co/vjumhgA9EH
@womensweb A1. Celebrating Diwali in a traditional way has itself become different these days. I love to follow rituals. #WomenOnTheMove — Pallavi Kamat (@Pallavisms) October 26, 2016
@womensweb A1. Celebrating Diwali in a traditional way has itself become different these days. I love to follow rituals. #WomenOnTheMove
— Pallavi Kamat (@Pallavisms) October 26, 2016
@womensweb a festival to meet with family and friends — TravelingNoodles (@anjujayaram) October 26, 2016
@womensweb a festival to meet with family and friends
— TravelingNoodles (@anjujayaram) October 26, 2016
@womensweb With the strong influence of western culture, it’s important to emphasise #festivals as family occasions.#Diwali #womenonthemove — Vaishali Gandhi (@vaishali178) October 26, 2016
@womensweb With the strong influence of western culture, it’s important to emphasise #festivals as family occasions.#Diwali #womenonthemove
— Vaishali Gandhi (@vaishali178) October 26, 2016
@womensweb#ReInventingDiwali making cracking sound with just a paper!. My daughter’s way of celebrating pollution less Diwali — jey (@jeydevi) October 26, 2016
@womensweb#ReInventingDiwali making cracking sound with just a paper!. My daughter’s way of celebrating pollution less Diwali
— jey (@jeydevi) October 26, 2016
@womensweb This time I decided not 2 buy expensive lights from outside, but make my own. Fairy lights in decorated Keventers bottles 😍 — Swarnima (@SwarnsB) October 26, 2016
@womensweb This time I decided not 2 buy expensive lights from outside, but make my own. Fairy lights in decorated Keventers bottles 😍
— Swarnima (@SwarnsB) October 26, 2016
@womensweb Diwali without #crackers only with #lights #love and #mithai #womenonthemove — Back to the Front (@back2dfront) October 26, 2016
@womensweb Diwali without #crackers only with #lights #love and #mithai #womenonthemove
— Back to the Front (@back2dfront) October 26, 2016
@womensweb making traditional sweets with healthy twist at home #WomenOnTheMove — shruti mahajan singh (@shrutimsingh) October 26, 2016
@womensweb making traditional sweets with healthy twist at home #WomenOnTheMove
— shruti mahajan singh (@shrutimsingh) October 26, 2016
With the debacle of a pollution causing Diwali behind us, and the festive season still not over with Christmas and the New Year coming, maybe we should introspect on what we should be doing.
Become a premium user on Women’s Web and get access to exclusive content for women, plus useful Women’s Web events and resources in your city.
Image: Pixabay
A part time backpacker, an accidental baker, a doting mother, a loving wife, a pampered daughter, an inspired blogger, an amateur photographer read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, indivisual posts do not necessarily represent the platofrom's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
Why do parents avoid explaining the physical part of relationships to their children? The mindset is-'they will learn on their own like I learnt.'
Marriage. A word with conflicting sentiments. Love, exhilaration, fear, and adjustments were all deep sentiments that tingled in the pit of my stomach from time to time. However, I believe that the final decision must be taken solely by the two persons after the completion of courtship period (or whatever you call it).
My cousin got married in this lockdown. She was not very excited about the shrinking guest list. Though she was ecstatic she had me. More than the sisterhood bonding, we apportion a cognation of mentor-student. Moreover, I feel so protective towards her as she is introvert, shy, and timid. All I endeavoured and wanted her was her voice and a stand for herself.
It was her mehndi the day I reached. She rushed to hug me with those moist eyes. Fighting back my tears and holding her in my arms, my mind toggled between past and present. “I am so happy you made it di,” she said. It was the moment of mixed feelings, a reminder of the time when I was naïve to the change marriage brought into my life. I inhaled my lungs full of air in disbelief that the baby girl is getting married in two days. She blushed as others giggled and teased her asking her about the guy.
From the time one dancer went public about Pt Birju Maharaj through a series of stories on Instagram, the classic cycle of victim blaming started asserting itself- deny, disbelieve, discredit, disgrace.
Trigger warning: This has sexual abuse, victim blaming, and gaslighting, and may be triggering to survivors.
In light of the recent allegations of sexual misconduct by the legendary kathak maestro Pt. Birju Maharaj, a number of people are asking “why now?” Why is the person choosing to make the allegations public after his death when he is no longer around to defend himself? What is to be gained by sullying his reputation when he is no longer in the world? If these allegations were true, why didn’t we hear of it before?
How can we celebrate a more inclusive Diwali that is about reaching out beyond caste, class or religious boundaries? This post reflects on an alt-Diwali.
Diwali has turned into one of the biggest South Asian festivals across the world. It can really no longer be claimed as just a Hindu festival, especially because it has also become an event for celebration across the South Asian diaspora, which has come to view its celebration as an opportunity for cooking and eating vegetarian food together, some fun and dancing, the bursting of crackers and the consumption of that great national unifier Bollywood (with subtitles).
The celebration of Diwali organized typically by an Indian and Hindu diaspora has come to signify a non-religious reunion across a creed of South Asians that replays the dream of secularism among commonwealth countries outside South Asia, where foreigners to it may come as those invited to it, to watch, learn and appreciate performances of cultural difference, as spectators of integration and the discourse of ‘unity in diversity’ that Indian politics pretends to have achieved.
As we celebrate Diwali, let us also light a diya in our hearts and dispel darkness by setting aside all differences. Let's embrace love and kindness to make this planet an abode of peace and happiness!
It is a yearly ritual where I immerse myself in fond reminiscences of Diwali and revisit those happy times. My earliest memory goes back to the day when I lit a phooljhari, with my mother holding my hand. I was terrified by the loud noises and never tried bursting a cracker. That fear remained with me throughout. Till date, I have not tried my hand at anything else besides those sparklers that are deemed safe.
Something that I cherish from my childhood, along with the fun, food and festivity, is a poem that my brother wrote. The last couple of lines ran: “The sound of the crackers, the beating of the drums are always heard on Diwali, which is the festival of lights.” Yes, his composition was amateurish, but I loved it. I can vouch now that I was perhaps his only and most loyal reader, for I can recite those lines by heart, 46 years later!
In my three decades in the USA, I have lost count on the number of times Diwali has come up in conversations with non-Asians. “Oh, you celebrate Diwali!” is the reaction I commonly get whenever I mention that I’m from India. By default, Indians and Diwali are thought to be inseparable. This reaction is inevitable because of the secular fervour that the festival has.