The little things &#8211; Post Diwali Reminders

I have not seen a more simple Diwali celebration than this. Two rows of diyas, three each in a row, flickering cheerfully outside the ramshackle tin shed that the construction workers on the plot next to my building have erected as their home. I don’t know when this building will be ready. Its construction has been going on for a while. And while it is, I have the workers as my neighbors.

I was irritated by their presence at first. Disturbed by the constant noise of their labor. Excavators dug trenches. Pile drivers laid foundations. Bulldozers collected soil and emptied it into dumpers. Cranes lifted machinery. Cement mixers rumbled day and night. Water tankers came several times a day. Huge trailers bearing iron rods for the construction blocked the road.

But now I am used to them. I watch how they make the best out of what little life has to offer them. They cook in the shed. Bathe out of a drum in the open. Hang their laundry on a clothesline rigged outside the shed. I wonder how they must sleep at night. The plot is overrun by bandicoots. There are vicious mosquitoes because there is stagnant water. And there is the cruel October heat.

None of these discouraged them from lighting diyas to celebrate Diwali. I know they don’t have money to burn firecrackers. So they sit among the construction material to watch everybody else do so. I see them clap their hands in delight when rockets soar skywards in a fountain of sparks before time-delay fuses reignite them to explode in a stunning rainbow of colors.

And I thought… each one of us spends so much time sweating the small stuff; worrying, complaining, gossiping, comparing, wishing, wanting, and waiting for something bigger and better. Instead of focusing on all the simple blessings that surround us every day. It’s the little things that matter. Like the two rows of diyas outside the worker’s shed to tell the world Diwali has come to his home.

About Mark Manuel

The above thoughts/content has been proudly copied from the wall of Sir Mark Manuel. Being interviewing almost every role model of this country and going stronger each day. Mark Manuel is a respected Mumbai editor, writer, and columnist.

With over three decades of journalism in leading publications. This includes the Free Press Journal, Times, Dainik Bhaskar, Mid-Day, and Afternoon. He is famous for his brilliant pen interviews. He himself is a TEDx speaker.

Further

His interviews have been featured in several leading media houses. They include the Hindustan Times, Huffington Post, BBC, and Network 18. Almost every famous person has been interviewed by him in the country from Mother Teresa to Muhammad Ali. His first book is just out. It’s titled Moryaa Re! It is a crime thriller that is perhaps the country’s first police procedural. He began his career covering crime. And in a tribute to his experience and knowledge of this beat.

Several distinguished officers of the Mumbai Police and its Crime Branch collaborated with him to make this book possible. Amitabh Bachchan wrote the forward in a statement of friendship for Mark Manuel and admiration for his work.

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