:)

When Abhro told me that his ‘baji’ bill was 1500 I instantly thought how we ‘burn’ our money every Diwali. Well! The pretty lights-all through the night-in the sky-from my bed is a sight to cherish yes, but there are people who probably spend their entire month with that much money.

 But then Maa too returned from her candle and diya shopping. She told me about this old man, probably 70, she met today. He had a big shopper bag filled with candle packets and was sweating constantly. He did not have a shop and stood at one corner of the road trying to sell the candles and hence, went unnoticed. So my mother dearest went and bought the candles from him. He was so pleased at his first customer that he gave a discount of 2 rupees on the overall candle bill. Yes! 2! Just! But that seemed like a big amount to him as he went on saying that from each packet, he just gets a profit of 2 bucks.

 Maa went all numb and sad while telling the story and the self centred trait of mine kept on thinking of my financial problems or no problems that is to follow in future. But then again, the morning story of burning of the 1500 rupees suddenly started to seem all logical because that would buy a pretty Diwali night to the seller.

Happy Diwali!