Smile Times

Diwali this year_smile times. #GharWaliDiwali

Celebrations and festivities are invariably under duress these days. These are cataclysmic times and a lot of people all over the world are suffering because of one reason or the other. But is remaining glum or serious or in darkness the only ways of showing solidarity with them? I mean, what they need is more than just a show of solidarity, right? Let’s fill the environment with smiles. Let us transform today into ‘Smile Times’!

I know floods have ravaged and transformed life into a cowering blob of fear. I know there are wars being fought elsewhere and people are jostling to save their lives. There are muggings and rapes and all sorts of heinous crimes taking place in the world. And we all know that there are people working in real-time to transform these dark and doomy conditions. I know I cannot go to all these places and lend a hand… in many instances only an expert can do something and others might only hamper his speed. But what every person needs is a feeling of I’m-here-with-you and if we manage to fill the environment with smiles, they will tumble into the laps of those who need them most!

We are at a time when Diwali is around and this is a festival of lamps… which is indicative enough of the fact that light does need to reach the dark corners and the darkened highways of life! I am certainly going to celebrate Diwali with an express wish that the light from all the diyas and lamps in my house gets together and flies away to those who are waiting for hope to come knocking.

I know that each little sparkle of light is going to pierce the darkness and go unerring to reach out to bring just that bit of brightness in some life somewhere. This is what is going to give those people a renewed wish to get up with a fresh lease of energy and fight against the odds that have been piled up against them. Have you seen how a remote works? It sends out a wireless message and switches on a show of energetic colours on the television screen. Almost similar to this are the wishes of a bright future coming from the remotest areas. I know everyone cannot pack their bags and rush to save people trapped in dire situations… what they need is wishes showered on them remotely. Yes, there are other ways in which we can contribute. We can donate money and in kind. We can register for voluntary service with NGOs. We can go to temples and pray. We can smile and celebrate the spirit of oneness too…

Yes, let do all the things that I have listed… but let us not forget to celebrate well with lights and pray silently that every lumen of these lights goes out to those unfortunate souls who are deep into the chaotic world of some or the other disaster. These bits of light and smiles will surely lead those trapped friends to find the way out.

So obviously this Diwali is going to be a push to let smiles and lights get brighter so that they go on and catalyse the fighting spirit of every human who is fighting a battle to either survive a catastrophe or is trying to make life live for someone trapped in the misery of a trauma.

#GharWaliDiwali

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