WHEN YOUR DIWALI IS NOT MY DEEPAVALI

O how should I greet you this week? Am I supposed to say 'Happy Diwali' or 'Happy Deepavali'? That is just the beginning of a meandering tale of rich possibilities in the way we celebrate festivals.

- MADHAVAN NARAYANAN

In fact, if you are from Bengal or other parts of eastern India, it is best to wish you for Kali Puja that typically falls a day after Deepavali, which northerners conveniently abridge to Diwali.

I have just learned that Kali Puja was practically unheard of until the 16th century and became widespread two centuries later, thanks to a king. Not everything in Hindustan is ancient, though some would like us to believe that.

Festivals get tricky in the land of Hindus. Sometimes the day varies for the same event. Sometimes the same event has different reasons. Bengalis celebrate Lakshmi Puja in devotion to the goddess of wealth, five days after Vijayadashami that falls during Navratri in which the prominent deity representing the mother goddess is the selfsame Kali, the goddess of valour, who is specially worshipped the day after north Indians have had their own Lakshmi puja.

I have childhood memories of celebrating the south Indian Deepavali in Delhi, where neighbourhood kids would insist Diwali is celebrated at night to mark the return of Lord Rama from exile, while we would get up at dawn to mark the slaying of a demon called Narakasura by Lord Krishna. The demon's last wish in repentance was for people to celebrate his death as a fall of evil. For the record, Keralites mostly do not mark Deepavali, preferring instead their own Onam, linked to the appearance of Lord Vishnu as Vamana, while Tamil Nadu and the north mark the later incarnations of the same protector.