We weren’t able to decide how we should observe the festival. For, while we did participate in the exchange of countless Dhanteras forwards yesterday and will wish a ‘Happy Diwali’ over the next two days, we thought we will take some counsel from our Wizard with Words. So, here’s the Das ka Dum for today, November 3. We’ll be back on Monday, November 8. Until then, don’t miss us much. Happy Deewolly!

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

Q. It’s Diwali today and tomorrow. We asked you a Diwali question last week, but your sentiments on the day?

A. I have an ambivalent feeling: I am feeling happy as it’s the festival of lights and there’s celebration all around, albeit subdued in many areas. I am also feeling melancholic as we lost dear ones in the pandemic, people lost jobs: will they have a lighted Diwali?

May be I am a victim of a sense of loss which is perhaps endemic to human beings. So even if we gain in life , we also feel that we are losing. Some time I am utopian, at another time, I feel dystopian. But why am I talking like this during a festival? I don’t know. Let’s all celebrate. Happy Diwali!