Time For A Thoughtful Change!

Shanti, a housemaid, lives with her 13-year-old daughter, Shivani, near the slums of Mumbai. She works in the nearby houses to make the ends meet. After her husband's unfortunate death, her world is confined to her daughter and the one-room house she lives in, but she never let Shivani feel deprived of the love of a father. She has very well instilled in all the emotions and would shower her with all the wisdom she has gained over the years of working.

Both of them together would happily celebrate all the festivities joyously. During Holi, Shanti would forget everything and play with her daughter as if she herself is a kid and on Rakhshabandhan, she'd promise Shivani to protect her from all the evil of this world, just like a brother would do. This time of the year marks for Diwali but as fate would have it, Shanti fell sick and now there's no one to help them in distress. All the money has already been used for her treatment and Shivani is forced to go on the streets, in search of food and some money from the passersby.

One fine day on the occasion of the Laxmi poojan day (the day when we worship goddess Laxmi) she noticed an unusual crowd near the temple, eavesdropping some local people's conversation she got to know that it was about lighting up lots of diyas for some world record. Whatever. Shivani, was desperately waiting for the crowd to disperse so that once the diyas go out and stop burning, she could collect all the leftover oil and maybe sell it at some nearby store to buy groceries for her house.

She was smiling, for finally her Diwali has been made happy. Her life went on like that, consisting of some lucky days and some days just dark, without hope. For Diwali and the festivals like these, we all are happy... living in our own world but what about the millions of Shivani's and her ilks? Who could not afford to even have a meal on such auspicious occasions.

Shivani got lucky with the leftover. But think about it, why we never make a world record to feed the hungry people out there? Why are we following the age-old traditions blindly? And not changing them with the changing times and the needs of the less fortunate people around us. Why are our festivals still the same? We're burning crackers on one side and somebody is sleeping without having food. It's high time for us to change and question everything that we're doing.

P.S - Inspired by real life incidents.