100 Days of Happiness – Day 49

It’s easy to find sadness each day, but to find a moment of happiness is difficult. Last year, I couldn’t bring myself to finish the 100 Days of Happiness challenge. This year, I am more determined to finish it — Counting down to 2016 with Happiness!

The Happiness of a Lit Diya on Diwali

100 Days of Happiness – Day 49

Today was Deepavali, or Diwali, the festival of lights. It ranks second on the list of my favorite festivals, the first being Rakshabandhan. The lore behind the festival is a story I loved hearing when I was a child, and yes, to see the lights in front of each house, and the colors of bursting rockets in the backdrop of the night sky, that is something I still love

This year, there’s a cyclone happening in the Bay of Bengal, which has made it a wet Deepavali, the rains lashing the city continuously. It’s harder to light the diyas, and definitely not possible to light the firecrackers and see the colors in the sky. I do not burst crackers now, though it’s wonderful to see my neighbor’s two little children enthusiastic about the sparklers and colors too. When I reached home from office (yes, I worked on Diwali), one of the two jumped into my arms and told me about how she lit sparklers today when the rain had stopped. And my mom had lit diyas and kept it at the doorstep, away from the rain too.

Happiness is… the light of the diya, which lit up my smile today; and the happiness of my neighbor’s children too. They’re living the moments that are my memories of childhood, and I’m happy they are.

(© 10^th November 2015)

Vinay Leo R.

Poetry & writing to me are to me, a breath of fresh air in a life that is sometimes covered by the smoke of sorrow or self doubt. They also become the sweets I share to celebrate when life offers me a reason to. But most of all, they are to me, my life. For each word I write is a piece of my heart, a thought that just had to find its way into the world.