Diwali For All

Happy Diwali to all of you and your family, may this festival bring lots of smile and prosperity in your life. I hope you all are enjoying the festival season to the fullest.

You must be thinking about what am I doing here on the blog on Diwali day instead of enjoying the festival with family. Exactly the topic of the day is the way we as a group celebrated  Diwali with some unique thoughts to make this Diwali a rocking one not only for us but for people who actually need it the most. 

Now let me update the thought behind this and then will update you on details of celebration in the next section. 

Significance of Deepavali

To start with, let me tell you what Diwali/Deepavali symbolizes and the essence of this great festival is. The biggest essence is "victory of light over darkness”, this means we need to spread lights wherever there is darkness, not only putting lights but in a way, we can bring a smile on the face of poor people who don’t afford to celebrate this great festival. Here the motive is to light up the happiness among these tribal people by offering a small hand of help in their Life.

With this noble thought under the leadership of Mumbai Travelers we had Diwali celebration with people of a small village “Kuwaripada” at Tansa. Now let me tell you that Tansa is a place from where our own Mumbai City gets water.

I know not many of us are aware of Tansa hence we decided to reach out to the place where managing necessity like water is a challenge and celebration or lighting etc remains just a dream. Yesterday we reached the place and had one of the best Diwali till date, let's move the next section to see how we were successful to bring smile and lights in life of our own people who are now part of our family. 

DIWALI FOR ALL

Diwali for All is a unique initiative brought by Mumbai Travelers where one can donate and visit the Tribal village to celebrate Diwali with villagers and make their Diwali a special one. So let start with the celebration of Diwali in true sense with villagers in a style.

The activity was initiated well in advance so as we can have sufficient quantity for around 20 families (120 people) of this lovely village. We had a very good count of donation but just handing over material is not sufficient. They may feel ignorant and distance from city people typical gap between city & village, to feel up the gap of city and village and to give them comfort that even city people care for them and we don’t shy to be with them we reached the place personally. We thought that celebrating personally and light up Diya at their home as we do at our home would make them feel special instead of ignorant. 

We around 20-25 people under the leadership of Saurabh reached the place by 4 pm, trust me the moment we reached there the smile and happiness of villagers were on top, they were happy to see that people do care for them and willing to support and uplift them. The village is far away from the city at around 30 KM but still, they manage cold drinks for all of us and welcome us with showering flowers, this was a great gesture of humanity and heart touching. 

Till last month there was no electricity in the village so you can understand the kind of challenges they have. The overwhelming response on donation helped us to make their Diwali a special one. Donation count was too good so out of all things, which I could remember, it is like books, stationery, games such as Cricket bats, carom, football, skip ropes, chess, Kambal, mats for small children, grocery, etc.

Grocery and basic necessity was packed for each family so all of them can have equal distribution, stationary and books were handed over to school so as it can be optimally utilized and common stuff such as games were handed over to the leader of the village so as he can keep control over better utilization. This is how the combination of the city and villagers came together and celebrated the festival of lights to bring happiness for each other. 

The best is yet to come

At the last before we leave the best part comes in, creation of rangoli near Tulsi Kunj with flowers and light up Diya and lanterns outside each house. The best part of Diwali is to bring a smile and overcome darkness and if you do it for people who cannot afford then it is Diwali in true sense. 

The purpose of the blog is not to publicize ourselves but to promote the true essence of this great festival so as in future many more such initiatives can be undertaken by more groups to uplift the poor families so as they can also contribute to the development of our country. 

Wish you all a very happy Diwali and prosperous new year