Deepawali

In the abode of Gods…

Lakshmiji: Are you ready Ganesh?

Ganeshji: Yes, ma! Definitely I am, desperate to visit humans once again.

Lakshmiji: Hmm…hey, make sure you have fed your mouse sufficiently. You’ll be weighing a lot more on the return journey. Hahaha…

Ganeshji: C’on ma! Don’t tease me…These earth dwellers make such sweet offers that I can’t refuse them. And you know how much I avoid eating at those unhealthy places that belong to sinners.

Lakshmiji: Yeah, yeah I know!!!

Ganeshji: And ma, could you please bring your laptop along? Mine hung when I connected it to Chitragupta’s for updating the data on humans. So I had to get the data in the pen drive.

Lakshmiji: What??? Ganesh, putra how many times did I tell you not to choose that local Lenovo brand?

Lakshmiji waves her owl away.

Ganeshji: How could I know ma? These Chinese companies advertise themselves so much…Damn! I’ll be more careful next time. And guess what, Param pita Brahmaji got so annoyed when he saw this, that he cancelled Lenovo’s contract for networking in Devlok. He’ll soon be contacting those guys from CISCO for the same.
Lakshmiji’s owl arrives carrying her laptop.

Lakshmiji: Yeah, he better do that. I can’t stand the time lapse between these intra-swarg data transfers. And I’m not even sure what kind of reception we’ll be getting this year. After this entire slump in the American market, people are really in troubles this year.

Lakshmiji, switches the laptop on, and Ganeshji attaches the pen drive to copy the data.

Ganeshji: It’s not for the first time, and for the same reason they’ll be more eagerly waiting for you. But we better look out; these guys can really be cons. I wonder what people will ask for in the name of this slump.

Lakshmiji: Who cares??? We don’t have to succumb to all their demands, do we? Just look out for the honest guys, that’s it.

Both fly away. (Ganeshji’s mouse gallops in the space-time domain)

Lakshmiji: Talking of this slump, I think we must really be thankful to our other role Christ who takes care of the Americans. Else, I would have gone crazy doing all those Americans. And ever since the election campaign has started, people are talking more of Mccain and Obama rather then us. How I hate these elections…

Ganeshji: Relax, ma! Just a couple of weeks more, they shall be back in churches. But there’s just one problem!

Lakshmiji: What, son?

Ganeshji: They don’t offer such sweet prasad to us. If they would, I’ll be more lenient with them…

Lakshmiji: Hahaha…Ganesh, wait, after this Deepawali, I’ll go straight to Kailash and ask Parvati to put you on diet!

Ganeshji: No ma, please…

They enter the earth’s atmosphere.

Lakshmiji: Alright, here we go!

Both are flying above a city, where they see a beautifully lit and decorated house. A man is standing in front of the house, adoring the decorations and drawing a swastika and om on the gate of the house. Lakshmiji and Ganeshji fly down to the proximity of the man.

A small girl with a basket full of earthen lamps comes to the man.

Girl: Ram-ram sethji!

Sethji turns back.

Sethji: Ram-ram!

Girl: Wah-wah sethji! What a beautiful decoration you have done…and this rangoli…wah-wah.

Sethji: Thank You, my wife herself has made this rangoli to welcome Lakshmiji.

Lakshmiji passes a smile to Ganeshji, who is frowning.

Girl: But, there’s still something missing.

Sethji: What?

Girl: Deeye, sethji, deeye…where are the lamps? How can you celebrate Deepawali without a deepak??

Sethji: (Laughs) Chal hath, can’t you see that I’ve done so much lighting with these electric lights? Pata hai, I spent so much money on these Chinese lights…and you are telling me about deeyas? Beta, off you go, I don’t need any earthen lamp.

He mumbles to himself – Already there’s so much fiasco in the market, this deepawali has taken its toll on me, and on that these vendors…they don’t leave us!!!

Girl: Alright sethji, as you wish! I was just thinking of your well being, and I could have earned some money too.

Sethji: If its money you want, then I can give you some.
Sethji puts his hand in his pocket, brings out a purse and fetches a note out of it.

Girl: Na sethji na! I will not take any money that I have not earned. It is not right.

Sethji: Not right??? If you don’t have money, how will you celebrate deepawali?? Le beta, leja…else I’ll have to face the sin of driving a needy girl out of my home, that too on the night of deepawali.

Girl: No sethji! I’ll dare not touch the money that I am not worth of. And what is deepawali –holi for me? I believe in myself and my karma. Every day that I do my work honestly, is festive for me. Achha Sethji, chalti hun…ram-ram aur shubh deepwali!

‘Sethji’ watched the girl trace her path in darkness…

The Gods knew whom to follow…

The Sketch

The clouds had covered the deep blue sky all over. It was with effort, the sunlight was peeping from behind the curtain, strikingly clear. Wind was blowing mildly, the clouds had no destination but for the pity of wind.

“Chirrup, chirrup!
Chirrup, chirrup!”

The sound attracted me towards the source. Two little sparrows were playing on the roof beyond the window. For some of us solace is so easy…I was jealous of the birds.

Someone coughed and brought me back to life…I realized. Professor had already entered the room. Everyone had their sheets opened on their drawing tables, their drafters and drawing stuff on their tables. I fumbled with my things. By the time, ‘Sir’ was on my table passing instructions; I had my things propped up too. Back benching gains…

“Based on the details that you have crammed up in the last Hydraulic Machines Class, you’ll today draw the schematic diagram of water flow from a river water reservoir to the Pelton Wheel. Mention the dimensional and constructional details accurately…”

I had twisted my eraser to its maximum torque absorbing capability. Unable to absorb any more stress, it flew out of my hand to ground. When I looked up after picking it back, the Professor was glaring at me.

I snailed back two steps to my table.

‘Sir’ had gone back to his chair. “Be quick everyone, you better submit you sheets within 1 and ½ an hour, or be prepared to lose your internals”, he barked and went out of the room.

Relieved, I quickly turned around to look out of the window…the sparrows were gone.
I had lost them…

I would better do my work, I thought. Scribbling started on the sheet. The river reservoir and the tail stock were easy to draw. The wheel was easy to sketch too. The water shall have a clean flow in this figure, I laughed in my mind.

But there was something missing in the sheet.

Five minutes later, the Professor walked back in the room. Almost everyone had completed the sheet. He walked on inspecting everyone’s chart. He paused at my table, cruelly scanning my drawing.

“What is this, Mr. Gupta?”

“A pair of sparrows playing on the reservoir wall, sir.”

“Do you think they are a part of this mechanism?”

Before I could reply he ordered me to obliterate them and walked to the other row. Reluctantly, I erased the birds. But I was unable to put them out of my mind and out of the sheet. Man had, after all, encroached nature’s riches.

On the second round, the Professor made it a priority to visit my table. The sparrows were flying in the sky this time.

“It seems, Mr. Gupta, that you are hell bent on flunking this semester. I told you, I want to see those birds out of the sketch. Do it now!”

15 minutes later we were asked to submit our sheets on his table. I waited for my turn. He was watching me furiously, as I walked to his table. I turned my eyes down. He asked me to spread the chart in front of him.

I did…

An enraged slap met my face…

The sparrows had died alongside the river reservoir…