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Image for the poem A festival of lights

A festival of lights

 
Hello, this is about the Indian Hindu festival called Diwali. It is said that Lord Rama beat King Ravana, who had kidnapped his wife Sita in an epic battle written in the Ramayana. The end of Nav-Ratri, or 9 days is Dussehra which marks the death of Ravana. Diwali is celebrated as the victorious return of King Rama, back to his homeland, Ayodhya from which he was exiled for 14 years. Thousands of households light lamps, distribute sweets and decorate their houses during this festival. They also bust tonnes of crackers that are made out of child labour  This is all you need to know for my poem.
 
Do DM for any clarifications or if you know some exciting Diwali stories :)
 
Here comes the festival of lights  
An epic battle, but not of good vs evil is the fight  
Some call Diwali as the trounce of Lord Rama over the King of Lanka  
But some claim it was the whims of a patriarchal strife  
Of Lord Rama taking claim over his wife
 
All this said and done
Diwali may call for celebration and fun
But if you talk about the triumphs of good over bad  
Then busting crackers will only make your worth undone  
The fumes of the crackers tell me a story  
 
Not of the wishful demon, or the exiled King  
they tell me a story of the guilt in which they live
surviving of burnt hands of the young kin  
The fumes are spirits of the dying children  
 
The toxic flames engulfing the lives, innocent  
The fumes tell me the stories of the chocked lungs  
of people dying every day, of the earth being expunged  
They are the spirits of the people, of the past, of the dead  
 
Releasing them in air will only send messages of despair  
Celebrate with love and joy and happiness  
Celebrate with science, experiments, laboratories  
But don't celebrate, when the basis of your celebration is on the corpses of the young  
Don't celebrate good, when the celebration itself turns you evil
Written by aarti
Published
All writing remains the property of the author. Don't use it for any purpose without their permission.
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