Diwali Decoration Brouhaha

Many of my whatsapp groups are abuzz with pictures of Diwali themed train in Singapore. Lot of praise and lot of admiration for this little country for celebrating Diwali. There is a sense of pride that "our" festival is being celebrated far and wide. 

http://indianexpress.com/article/trending/trending-globally/singapore-gets-its-first-diwali-themed-train-3087474/

There are some others who have gone one step ahead and shared pics of desi stations and railways and airport termini which don't have any Diwali themed decorations, yet, to bring out the contrast. That is the fun part - also little uncalled for. 

Indians are around 9% of Singapore population. And one way to look at the episode is, they are celebrating plurality in their country. Couple of years back there was a Barack Obama video wishing for Diwali; and Indians are just about 1% in US. Diwali, or Deepawali is celebrated around the world, and our desi diaspora has been a wonderful brand ambassadors. 

These are signs of an inclusive developed country with mature administrators and citizens. 

What i wish to highlight in this blog is our loss of diversity. In the race for homogenisation, urbanisation and being part of popular narrative, so many of our cultural identities, languages, dialects, festivals, occasions have gone extinct. We "had" such rich culture of song and dance, celebrating various life stages. Alas, even our villages which were the last bastions of cultural treasure have succumbed to the trappings of urbanisation. 

So, exporting our major festival is good thing. But losing our cultural diversity is very sad. Many many festivals, or different ways of celebrating the same festival, now no longer exist, because they didnt fit in the mainstream narrative, or the practitioners were ridiculed, or worse, killed. 

Yes, please be proud that Diwali is celebrated globally; and also remember, that there were many different ways of celebrating Diwali - that no longer happen.