You've recently made a trip to one of the Indian villages and learnt how festivals support the livelihood of the villagers. Share your experiences in the form of a travelogue.

Festival: DIWALI

I traveled to India last year as part of my tour of Asia and i made a brief stop at Kolkata. Fortunately for me, i was right on time to witness the festival of Diwali which usually lasts for five days and celebrated between mid-October and mid-November.

Diwali is a celebration that is peculiar to Hinduism and according to locals, it symbolizes the spiritual victory over light and darkness.

In preparation for the celebration, the locals in Kolkata made a whole make-over of their surroundings by cleaning, decorating and renovating their houses and workplaces. They were on their best attires and offered puja (which i was told means worship) to Lakshmi the goddess of prosperity and wealth.

The first day of Diwali was accompanied by making beautiful decorations and cleanings. The second day is  known as Naraka Chaturdashi. The third day which is the day of Lakshmi Puja is the darkest night of the traditional month. The fourth day of Diwali is dedicated to the union of husband and wife and the last day is known as Bhai Dooj which is dedicated to the relationship between brother and sister.

The locals at Kolkata look forward to this day with great enthusiasm and gusto. I stayed in Kolkata for the entire five days of celebration before i moved on to another city.

the first proposition is to question economic materialism and victorian christianity. the lines are:

“it moves us not.—great god! i'd rather be

a pagan suckled in a creed outworn; ”

wordsworth is stating that nature no longer interests mankind, that the latter is not “moved” by it and explains that ancient western paganism had a more positive attitude concerning nature since it lacked the perv erted judaeo-christian interpretation of having received the world and all its animals and elements from god to use as we , instead of humans actually being not only part of nature but its wardens, meant to appreciate it and protect it.

the next lines are:

“so might i, standing on this pleasant lea,

have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

have sight of proteus coming from the sea;

or hear old triton blow his wreathed horn.”

wordsworth here make it very clear that by actually looking and contemplating nature, human beings would reconnect with happiness, serenity and purpose. the use of mythological figures is quite evocative as well, proteus is a greek mythological god of the changing sea. he personifies the sea that changes, which symbolizes the way nature changes and inevitably can change to be destructive not only due to natural causes but to human pollution. furthermore, the sea is even more symbolic since all life originated in the sea so it is not only our past but our future since no life form in our planet can survive without water and if all water is destroyed in earth all life will be gone as well.

he then uses triton which is symbolic of the synthesis of both nature and mankind. triton is a mythological greek god that has the upper body of a man and the lower body of a fish (a merman). this human fish duality evokes the fact that humans are not only human but also part of nature, the fish tail representing nature. the main attribute of this god was that he used a conch shell as a horn to calm the roaring seas. in other words, triton uses nature through science for the benefit of human sailors who risk death during tempests. with the use of such metaphor, wordworth is conveying the message that human technology   is supposed to use nature to preserve nature and thereby humanity as well.

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