Shubh Diwali – Happy Deepavali
By Amba Ramgoolam
(CHAKRA) I am blessed. I have a life filled with wonderful people, a tiny segment of which are here on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. Nearly half of you are of some varied South Asian background, but most of you are not. To all of YOU I want to wish you a VERY HAPPY DIWALI, and thank you for the kind wishes that you have sent me, your Hindu friend, over the past week.
I grew up with you, went to school with you, probably spent considerable hours with you in a swimming pool or on a lake. You might have heard me rant about Hinduism, Diwali, ignorance, racists, or all of the above rolled into one. You endured my ranting and raving, usually with a smile.
The reason I’m wishing all of my dearly beloved non-South Asian friends Happy Diwali is because the message is universal. Good vs. Evil, yeah we’ve seen that before. Light over darkness, ok yeah fireworks WOOHOO. What I want to share with you is the wish that you keep your fires lit, all year round. This isn’t a religious flame, or a light of god, or anything like that. The darkness that is destroyed by the light of Diwali isn’t just evil, it is ignorance. It isn’t just monsters of the traditional under-the-bed variety.
I invite you all to celebrate your inner fires, the fire of your convictions, the fire with which you live each and every day. The wonderful people I grew up with are the people who will run this country one day, and I don’t need to hope or wish to see that happen; it will. I want you all to remember to live your life with that fire inside, that light that glows out of each and every one of you. And never to let it go out.
Shubh Diwali.