Deepawali

Even as the whole world was debating Obama receiving the Nobel for Peace, I saw news of Obama celebrating Deepawali by lighting 'diya' in Whitehouse. Not just the word 'diya' was new to me, but also some other information I found in Obama's speech. I was under the impression like many that Deepawali is a Hindu festival, celebrated to mark the occasion of killing of Narakasura by Krishna. Obama says it is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists, 'people of some of the great faiths of the world'. Per media reports, Obama becomes the first sitting US President to 'grace the occasion' with a group of Indians in White House.


Doing some search, I found further that North & South India have different reasons for celebrating D. While the southern version refers to Krishna and Narakasura, the Northern version has different hero & villain: Rama and Ravana. Didn't know that D is celebrated as the occasion that marked Rama's return from Sri Lanka to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana. Jains celebrate it as the occasion of their master Mahavira attaining moksha or nirvana. Sikhs have the latest history to mark this occasion -they celebrtae this as the return of their Guru Har Gobindji to Amritsar Golden Temple from imprisonment -he was kept in prison by King Jehangir. Some Buddhists in Nepal also celebrate D, I read.

When I showed Obama speech on a screen among a group of 30 Indian families in here, they weren't impressed. Some of them got instantly patriotic, and asked me why I did not bring Pratibha Patil's speech. (I was worried someone would then ask me "What happened to speech by mu.ka Alagiri..?..m?"). Someone said it was all 'marketing (!) gimmicks' which the US politicians are good at. The other one found the 2-min speech 'unnecessarily' cutting into the next event - which was 'lunch'.

You only see what you believe you see! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuiAW_6XKVM

I could not stop recalling the joy we saw in our good friend Manick's  face when he shared with us his experience of visiting President Obama's inauguration ceremony early this year. (My family & I stayed with him in his palatial house in NY for 4-5 days in Jan 2004 i.e., prior to my transfer to Japan-what a house it is!). Manick wrote a nice article about his personal experience of being at the historic inaugural ceremony in "The Hindu" 29-Jan-2009 edition  http://www.hindu.com/2009/01/29/stories/2009012952630900.htm

(Deepika was impressed with Obama speech for his last couple of lines when he wished all a Happy Diwali; he said "Michelle & I wish you all...." His reference to Michelle even when she wasn't in there was just enough to sweep Deepika off her feet! :-)

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