So let’s enjoy both the festivals together: Halloween and Deepavali

Today is 31 October. 31 October means a lot in the United States, Canada, or UK or wherever people believe in the festival of Halloween. Though last year I was in the US, I did not learn that much that year about this holiday as I come to know this year, four days before Indian holiday, Deepavali. What!

Here is a blog seeing these two festivals simultaneously; I wonder Ancestors have been so alike in their thinking and approach to life.

History

Halloween has its roots in the Celtic Festival of Samhain/ Samhuin and the Christian holiday of All Saints’ Day but now has come to be a secular annual holiday, primarily  in the US, Canada and the UK. The festival of Samhain having its roots in Celtic polytheism and meaning the “Summer’s end” denotes the end of the one season of the harvest and also the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half." All Saints’ Day, on the other hand, which in the Roman Catholic Church officially meant Solemnity of All Saints and also called All Hallows or Hallowmas is observed in honor of all saints known and unknown.

Deepavali, popularly known as the festival of lights, is a five day festival in Hinduism (Sikhism and Jainism) and is a national holiday in India, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Mauritius, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Fiji and Surinam. In Hinduism, Deepavali marks the return of Lord Rama to his kingdom of Ayodhya after killing demon king Ravana, the ruler of Lanka and all other bad spirits (demons). It also marks the end of the 14 years of the banishment of Rama and beginning of a new life, the end of the one season of summer and the beginning of winter, the end of the one harvest and the beginning of other. In Jainism, Deepavali marks the attainment of Moksha by Mahavira in 527 BC. Again a beginning of a new existence if you call it so.  In Sikhism, Deepavali commemorates the return of Guru Har Gobind  to Amritsar after freeing 52 Hindu kings imprisoned in Fort Gwalior by Emperor Jahangir; thus again denoting beginning of a new life.

Both festivals seem to mark two things: 1. the defeat of evil by good. 2. Beginning of a new life.

Time of the Festivals

Though the festival of Samhain was observed on 31 October – 1 November and All Saints’ Day on 1 November, the festival of Halloween is observed on 31 October every year. As opposed to this, the most important day of Deepavali is celebrated on Amavashya of the month of the end of Ashvin and beginning of Kartik every year according to the lunisolar Hindu calendar. This year it is on 5 November.

Reasons to Celebrate

In my sense, abstractly, defeat of evil by good or the celebration of the good in both. You have every right to disagree :)
 

Festivities

Deepavali: Lights, new clothes, sweets and snacks, special dishes (oh they are so tasty!!), worship of gods and goddesses, especially goddess Lakshmi in Hinduism etc.

Halloween: Costumes, Masks, costume parties, carving Jack-o-lanterns (lantern means “Light in a transparent protective case” according to the word web dictionary), ghost tours, bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, committing pranks, telling ghost stories or other frightening tales, and watching horror films etc.

The “trick-or-treating” by children in the Halloween is so similar to “Tesu” before Deepavali in which we as a child used to go at neighbor’s house and used to sing songs or tell some stories and would get rewarded in the form of grains which we used to sell in the end or money.
 

Spiritual Significance

It seems from the story and rituals that both the festivals in their core symbolize the spiritual awakening of the self/ inner light against the darker self.

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Since it is a blog and not a research paper, this is enough to express the idea which struck my mind. Sometimes mind gives such a crazy thing; excuse me don’t think in psychological terms: it will spoil all aesthetic/poetic sense!!

So let’s enjoy both the festivals together: Halloween and Deepavali. Happy Halloween and Deepavali to all.

And of course, those who are offended by this suggestion, they are free to enjoy one: happy one to them.
 

Hakuna Matata; it means no worries.

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Statement of thesis: two observations about language use in Hyderabad

Like the origin of the humans, there has been much discussion regarding the origins of the world languages, and linguists have tried hard to determine the similarity among various languages. It was first in the 16th century, informed Kenneth Katzner in 1995 in his book The Languages of the World, published by Routledge, that similarity between Sanskrit and Italian were indicated. Since then there have been continuous efforts to decide the ancestry of the languages. Hindi (also Sanskrit) and English have been termed as belonging to Indo-European family of languages. Good to know that India preserves 1652 languages (not to be misunderstood with dialects, they are separate).

You will be wondering what the heck I, a person of literature has to do with linguistics, and why you should waste your time in knowing it. Yes you don’t. But, you know, to share with you what I want to share with you, I needed this introduction. A nice smile :) Here is my statement of thesis- this is what I hear now a days in the Research methodology: two observations (science is nothing without observation, they say!) about language use in Hyderabad.

On the first day of our arrival in Andhra Pradesh (we are seven from three departments of AMU attending this program), we decided to leave our berths on Secunderabad railway station. The station is near to MANUU as compared to the Hyderabad railway station though the university is in Hyderabad. What! Yes it is. It was around 9 o’clock in the night, and I was hungry. I mean I had mice in my tummy. The city was quite charming from its buildings and technological framework, but I was also fascinated by its language, Telugu which is spoken here. The hoardings on the streets were written in some strange letters, of course Telugu, and it was the charm of the letters as some sublime art which had figures in curves, angels, and parallels that I could enjoy the beauty and sublimity of them.  It used to happen quick like the blinking light of the firefly. Once my visual sense was entertained, I could know their meanings by reading their translations in English though I suspect that I could get the complete meaning of the language; at least not the music of the language if there was any.

The bus conductor was equally fascinating speaking Hindi and English to us and Telugu to locals. It was this fascination that I and one more friend decided to learn some Telugu words form one passenger in the bus on the very first day. Are you kidding? No we are not. We learnt what are Girl, Thank you, one, two . . . ten, rupee, ticket in Telugu. Thank you is Dhanyavadpallu in Telugu, I learnt. NO, I heard wrong, it is Dhanvadmu. Thank You in Hindi is Dhanyavad. Now it seems interesting to see this similarity between Hindi and Telugu though two languages belong to two different families of languages: Hindi to Indo-European Family and Telugu to Dravidian family of languages.

Another story. On last Wednesday, some of us bunked the lecture in between and decided to go to the library of University of Hyderabad to collect Research material. Library has a lot of quality books. One secret: when you are researcher, good books give you as much happiness as jewels would give to a miser. When I had collected the books which had some relevant material, I gave them for photocopy. When the photocopies were done, the photocopy doer in the shop asked me to give him some one or two naught six rupees to pay. “Interesting, why don’t you say zero, which we say in north India,” I asked and “That’s what we speak,” he replied. Yes it was not the first time in Hyderabad that I had heard zero pronounced naught. The coordinator of the program also used it but at that time, I thought it was because he was educated and had his Ph.D. in English. I used to believe that in most cases, cipher or number 0 is usually zero in Indian and British English, letter O in American, and naught in Australian English.

Culture shock, is it?? Or there is much to learn!!

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Security Guards, and Death & love.

I have been thinking a while to write down what I have been observing and what hammers my Self but the impulse was never so great as to force to write it down. This time too I avoided it for quite a many days, but now it wants a vent. It has two things in its background: one security guard, and my recent contemplation about death, final truth if there is any, happiness, and love. 
Before going further, I should deviate to tell that this is my first note on this page, not from my home town Aligarh, Aligarh which seems so intimate once I am away from it, but from Hyderabad. I came here on 12 and will be here till 2nd of November. This city is good, quite hi-tech, and embodies four great universities—University of Hyderabad, English and Foreign Languages University, Osmania University, and Maulana Azad National Urdu University— in itself. In spite of the technology, Indian culture is alive, and there is much contact with nature.  Two days before on Dusshera, you could see every woman having flowers in their hairs; and almost every bus having tree branches around their faces. On the first night of arrival, I saw some vendors who were sailing sugarcane in pieces. The people are polite.
But the food...It’s not like a typical north Indian food. You will find every dish made out of rice. If you can find chapatti/roti; you are lucky (though we are given rotis (which are not like north Indian rotis) since we are north Indian). Every curry (vegetable) is sour as if they have mixed lemon juice in it. One leaf called kadi patta is the leaf which they use in almost every curry. (Are we sheep or goats who are eating leaves in every curry and food, we have joked several times.)
Now let me come back to the things which have forced me to talk you. The story goes like this:
Maulana Azad National Urdu University, in which I am for 21 days, is a good university. It was established in 1998. The library is not rich in scholarly books but still it is hi-tech. I usually use Wi-Fi while attending lectures. On the gate of this library, there are two security guards. Yes security guards; the persons in most strange dresses, easily identifiable in their dresses, conversations and health from others. Sometimes the most innocent, other times the most pitiable. Yes one of the species of human beings which are sometimes heard stealing from the owner’s house. I have had some conversation with one of the security guards who work at the library gate in the day and on the main gate in the night. When does he sleep? Somewhere from 1 a.m. For this day and night duty, he gets 7,000 INR a month. It’s not that he is forced to work day and night, it is he who works in the night so that he can earn extra 3500 INR with his 3500 salary for the day. Beggars are burden on society, we say but aren’t we burdening these poor guards. They secure the things which are our convenience. Still we don’t pay them enough to say that they can be half happy as we are? What a great thankfulness!
It’s not the case that there are not socialists like Marxists in this campus or the city but why they should worry about them.  Why they should worry when they get twenty times more money for working for half of the time? Marxism (and Marxist) seems a misnomer, and it’s just one platform for power.  I remember when there was natural calamity in the Laddak, I requested one so-called Marxist to donate some money for the rehabilitation of the affected people. This money is tax free, I said. This Marxist did not give a single penny out of his thousands INR per month salary.  For sure my work is not criticizing the present form of Marxism or any other ideology, nor have I capability to do so. We all live under some ideology.
Why there is no rule implemented—a fundamental right— which sets the minimum wages in India, I ask?  Why there can be no campaign? This may be quite unresting. Unrest we are all.
 Here comes another story about my recent contemplation about death, final truth if there is any, happiness, and love.  It seems everyone is unrest all around. Poor and rich, healthy and unhealthy, man and woman all alike. It’s like—When the Earth Stood Still’s (a movie’s loose terminology)—that we are all unhappy willingly. When I reflect ideally, it seems all things in this world are problematic except one thing that we call Love, love in its all forms. I am not the first one saying this, all thinkers in all ages have expressed as such.  In my contemplation, it is my ‘ideal republic’. Simply it seems not possible.
In the morning, I heard that one father died in his sleep few days after his son’s wedding. Soon after, I saw in the newspaper that one miner who was saved in recent Chilean mine operation was walking in a royal like dress, waving to the people, cameras following him. It seemed he was un-identifying himself with the common persons. Before this incident, perhaps he was one of them. What a farce on human triviality! 
Though we can be sacred of Death, it seems the ultimate reality, if not initial. I remember one of my professors saying (while teaching psychoanalysis) that we live to die. I cannot also stop thinking about the central point of Shoonya (zero) philosophy (loose reference to a Hindu spiritual debate).  It seems if we can accept death as final reality, and therefore love without any condition, it will solve many problems, if not all. Yes many for sure.