So, happy Diwali all for even oil is so expensive this season that friends and neighbours have cut down on their lights by half. Firecracker stalls seem understocked and the usual painters and cleaners are returning disappointed from homes which have neither the resources nor the energy to undertake the usual Diwali renovation this year.I also notice that among those who have resources to stretch have decided to save funds for their childrens’ migration abroad. I know of someone who stopped her son from going abroad for higher studies some years ago. “I know what will happen; he will find a job there, perhaps even an angrezi memsaab will never return. He will be lost to me forever,” she had said. Today it is she who is urging him to migrate.When I expressed surprise at her changed attitude, she said “Ultimately it is about my son. This is no country for the young. There is no future for him here.”So, happy Diwali, India. In just seven years, we have gone from a relative period of prosperity and affluence to hand to mouth existence fraught with all sorts of comedowns and indignities. I do not know who is happy this Diwali – I have known seasons when businesses might have faced some recession but were generally able to make good on the basics for all classes of society.
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