Another Deepavali Day!

Another quiet Deepavali day, but last night was bad, quite a big ruckus in my locality with fireworks going off in the dead of the night. When I went for a walk this morning the streets were full of burnt-out cracker paper, shells of firework that go up like a shower, burnt cylinders of rockets, sparklers that had sparkled so brightly the night before, now a forlorn grey of cindered gun powder. Every brightly lit party or event has a sad and inevitably depressing end, which I found in the litter scattered everywhere. I am a bit sad at another festival’s passing. First it was Navratri, then Dussehra, and now Deepavali.

A beggar came and sat outside our building crying plaintively for food. In fact, so persistent was she that several people came out and gave her something to eat just to get rid of her. Yesterday, we went to a mall where there was a huge mascot in the form of an elephant, and two clowns walking, nay, dancing on stilts. It was funny seeing them, and I imagined how hot it must have been inside the dress they wore.