On a more cheerful note...

I was not in the mood earlier, but just now, I am. And have 10 mins to spare. So...

I re-read all my angst-ridden diwali posts over the years. I thought long and hard about festivals and traditions and why I am like that about them. I mean, I am not against them, per se. I thought I was, but actually I find it a lot more convenient and peaceful to not oppose traditions. They are so deeply entwined with people's emotions and nostalgic feelings and, occasionally, fear, that I don't want to get into that. These are people I love, I have to keep sight of that fact, most of all. So now, my take on it right now is that I feel bothered by some aspects of regular tradition. I dislike some aspects, additionally. I struggle (internally) to find meaning in most of it.

The pollution (noise and air), child labour, filth, waste and trash aspects of diwali I have somehow managed to come to terms with. As in, yes, I think they are all causes of serious concern. One ought to work on somehow, slowly, taking care of these things without getting into people's face. And we ought to try and think a little before indulging. I definitely have chats with my monster about these aspects. The schools, and Young World, and Trisha (well, one of those rare days on which I read The Hindu Magazine section), talk about them as well.

I don't want to talk about the less, most subtle reasons I am bothered. Instead I want to talk about an attempt I made this year, to make it better. Simply put, here it is. I spoke to a couple of my friends, deshvaasi, in particular. I called my friend Vimal at Goonj. Vimal and Andrew, who run Goonj's Chennai arm, are friends (of sorts). I met with Anshu Gupta (who founded Goonj) sometime ago, when he visited Chennai. I first heard of Goonj fairly recently actually, like three years ago perhaps, at MadMomma's. I like them.

I spoke about them at home. This is what I do. I talk about things. The monster picked up on it as their school has a poster (and a big, largely empty, box) about whirlpool's Ek Judi Kapda initiative (for Goonj). Parents-in-law picked up on it as they have been thinking of Udavum Karangal for clothes donations, recently. I took a couple of hours out each day the week of Diwali. Some of the time went into shopping (for our and the household help's families). One afternoon I sat with the parents-in-law and we accumulated three large sacks of stuff from their Godrej almirah. Then I sat with the monster and we put her clothes into piles - Keep, Give to Maid's Kid; Give to Flower-Seller's Kid; Give to Gardener's Kid; Goonj. I did the same with mine (Keep; Maid; Goonj). I found a nice sack full of socks. Ideal for Goonj as the winter comes on in non-Chennai parts of our country. The husband showed up few hours before our departure and likewise added his rather large clothes to our pile. Yes, all of these clothes are washed, some even ironed. Most of the clothes can be worn as such. A small portion of it might be better off used in Goonj's rather large effort on making Sanitary Napkins.

Thursday afternoon, post-lunch, monster & I drove to the campus. Deshvaasi, SBZ aka Peace, and her little daughter; and the two of us went to Goonj's wearhouse. We dropped our piles of clothes. Then we talked a bit with Vimal. Then we sat down - the three adults working through a pile of books (Textbooks, Novels, Picture Books, Notebooks/One-side paper; Crap paper); and the kids working through a pile of toys (Soft and Hard). We had seven sorted boxes (or so) at the end of it. If I had not taken the monster, and had gone with a larger army of friends, we could have helped a lot more. But then...

So this is how (and why), I was okay with Diwali and all aspects of it, when it rolled around on Friday. Because I was feeling peaceful, not about my measly two hours of sorting or my drop-in-the-ocean pile of last year's kurtis, but because I saw the potential there is. I saw a wearhouse bursting with clothes (a truck had just arrived two days prior). Two six-year olds giggled over a cockroach roaming amidst the toys. I saw the .ppt again and again had tears in my eyes when I saw the little thatched school that they built for Rs.80. The monster and I spoke all day and next about what we could do - not on a big large scale (I don't believe in that, so much) but small chota things...