PRASANTAM: Diwali in Doha Oct 2022 - Celebrations for Sustainability Education

Happy Diwali!

This year, Indians the world over are indeed feeling blessed on Diwali - the Indian team was given a thumping victory over the arch-rivals Pakistan* in the 20-20 world cup - thanks to a Kohli Diwali of crackers and rockets on the cricket pitch of Melbourne. then the Indians felt a secrete sense of revenge with somone of Indian origin, even to the third generation away from India, with an evident Indian bearing and an Indian surname - a Brown 'East' Indian, befittingly some 'rishi' of sorts, now guiding the destinies of the White West English.

As I became part of the flow of the school based celebrations, I realised that it was for the first time that I was celebrating Deepavali, barring a symbolic celebration in the senior years of major seminary, where we used to celebrate 'the feast of lights' in connection with the 'Light of lights'. This is in spite of having been in the North of India and Maharashtra for quite some time of my youth - almost a decade!

I interacted with the students gathered for the special assembly, almost 250 of them, bubbling with energy, and all dressed in various colours as it was a 'uniform free day' as part of the diwali celebrations. From their response, I gathered that almost 60% of them had some celebration or other in connection with Diwali - in their listing of the celebrations there were: puja (rituals), diya (lamps), rangoli or kolam (the designs in rice flour, depicting prosperity), sweets, fire-crackers... Apt answers, but what I wanted, I did not get from them - the practice of cleaning up the homes.

Among the several significances of the festival, prosperity motif is a dominant one. A symbolic ritual in some parts of the country is that of cleaning up the homes to get rid of the ant-prosperity element, which in our local language is termed mooshetta (related to negativity), before establishing Lakshmi, the deity of wealth and prosperity, the consort of the sustainer God, Vishnu (implication is that prosperity accompanies sustainability! And it can be sought only when sustenance is ensured for all including the last, the least and the lost - antyodaya for sarvodaya).

And sustainability and prosperity presuppose cleanliness - of mind, body and the environment. So it is a beautiful occasion for a sustainability education through religious observance. But unfortunately, this aspect had hardly been registered with any of the children, or with the parents, perhaps. That cleaning ritual might not be undertaken at all, and if undertaken, minus its educative function.

To the children, the key message is that of light, symbolizing the good - light overcoming darkness as a symbol of goodness overcoming wickedness and evil (I set aside all debates on these symbolisms for the time being). So the feast is an invitation to be the children of light, or be the light. I would suggest the best way to be the children of light is to increase goodness. And in the context of Diwali, the goodness one should make one's habit is 'cleanliness' (which is next to godliness). swacchata hi seva hai - cleanliness itself is service, is goodness - cleanliness of self, of one's home, of one's class room, of one's campus, starting with NO to littering, and moving on to waste REDUCTION.

Contrary to the spirit of Diwali, every year, India's proud capital, reinforces its ranking at no. 1, among the most polluted capitals of the world, this year being not different. Only consolation being, since 2015, this was the best record of Delhi's Air Quality after Diwali. It was at 326 on October 25th, though it did dip from the pre-Diwali status. The windy and less humid weather did the favour this year. The standards are below 50 - green, good; up to 100 - yellow-moderate; up to 150 - unhealthy for sensitive groups; up to 200 - red-unhealthy; up to 300 - purple-very unhealthy and above 300 - maroon-hazardous. So our festivity, instead of ensuring 'well being' and prosperity, is leading to illness, jeopardizing the common good. In fact, it is adding to evil! Delhi after Diwali 2022

I saw the instruction given by the Principal to the children of a school in Dhule, Maharashtra - to celebrate a Diwali without crackers! Good education, I feel.

Both the kindergarten and middle school assemblies had good singing and dancing in groups, besides some very well prepared speeches by the young Fatima Zayn of KG and Shivam Modgil of VI grade - spledid delivery. What I liked most was that in both the assemblies, the teachers appeared dressed up, well planned for the occasion in matching colours, and performed a dance for the kids!! They danced to the mantra - shubham kuruttvam kalyaanam...Aarogyam dhana sampada

Seeing all these happening in the school, I feel that the oft repeated bemoaning by people of my generation that education is going to dogs, and that the education that we got 'then', was really great etc. misplaced. Definitely, it had its own merits, but today's education appears much more goal directed, focussed and comprehensive. Efforts - laudable! Effectiveness - debatable!