It was the morning after “Dhanteras”. I was out to buy milk from the neighborhood store. I looked around, no one seemed to be in cheerful mood, unlike last Diwali. Last night’s festivities were low-key; even fire-crackers stopped by 11pm, rare for a supposedly upmarket neighborhood like mine.

On my way, I met a few familiar faces and exchanged Diwali wishes. I couldn’t help but notice the lack of enthusiasm, worried looks and cheerless voices. I couldn’t blame them, I too was in the same boat as them. Over the last week, I had seen value of my investments in the market diminish. An across-the-board salary cut was announced at the workplace just before Diwali, and there still was a possibility of layoffs.  Even the banks I trusted my life's savings with  seemed to be on verge of collapse.

And then I heard laughter for the first time that morning. A group of urchins was collecting the fire-crackers, that somehow remained unburst and were swept out of houses, from roadside garbage dumps. They had gotten hold of a broken pistol (the one used by small kids to burst “tikli fataka”), candles, and a few little bombs (“pitpiti bomb” in local parlance). And they were happy.

These kids belonged to the many laborer families, who work and live at the construction sites strewn across my locality. Some were dressed in rags or discarded clothing, and some little ones were not dressed at all. Almost all were barefoot. Unkempt, unclean, malnourished …. but somehow they were happy in these gloomy environs.

As I watched them, they rummaged through the garbage to find more such “treasures”; until a killjoy sweeper close by shooed they away, hurling abuses at them. They ran across the road, unmindful of traffic, laughing and shouting “Happy Diwali”, in reply to sweeper’s abuses.  I am sure they were back as soon as sweepers left and resumed their “treasure-hunt”, chanting “Happy Diwali”.

Yeah, “Happy Diwali” kids. May you remain as carefree and happy every Diwali to come. Worry is for us, the “haves”, who are afraid to lose. But you are lucky, you are “have-nots”…. you have nothing to lose.

Tags: have, have-nots, fire-cracker, urchin, festivities, bank, diwali, happy, gloom, market, salary cut, nothing to lose