A day in the life of LIFE

The Sufi songs of Kurbaan play back to back on my list even as I type this post. It’s Diwali on the IIM campus, just as it is across the other parts of the nation. Diwali is probably the most solid cultural link between the North and the South of the Vindhyas, in a land as diverse as India – talking of which brings back memories of all the cities I’ve celebrated Diwali in, over the period of my life thus far: Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Mysore and now Shillong.

One attribute of the festival of lights is its unmatched grandeur which is symbolic of the existence of human civilization. Poets and writers alike have written at length about the power of the light to liberate, primary of whom include John Henry Newman (Lead, Kindly Light) and B.M. Sri (Karunaalu Baa Belake – Kannada). The scene from Swades describes the festival of lights in an apt manner – one of sharing, love, contentment and hope : the last two emotions being opposite yet complimentary in nature.

An interesting comment by Sri Sri Sri Ravishankar on the importance of the humble “diya” in today’s Times of India is worth a recall here. He says that it is mandatory for the wick to remain part under oil and part out of it, exposed to the air, so that it can provide light to the surround. So ought to be the balance in all our lives which is most often a roller coaster of emotions. We all have faith, belief and expectation as the three underlying pillars of existence. And then these are both of internal and external dimensions. Managing these two perspectives is what is required of us and can be learnt from the omnipresent diya, the brilliant resonance of which according to me, is seen on the banks of the Ganges at Haridwar.

This flash of the thought brings to me the aspect of the transience of the present. T.S. Elliot rightly mentioned “Where is life lost in the living"...

I still believe that the “Hope of Hope is the reality of life” and I shall leave my readers with a beautiful one liner in the Times of India a few years ago when Ramzan and Diwali coincided on the same day.

“Here’s wishing everyone a very happy diwALI and RAMzaan” – It happens only in India...

Looking forward to this evening which promises to be a cracker of a celebration on the IIM Campus….

Pic below : The rangoli last time in front of the Academic Block..