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…