Celebrate Our Diwali Poem by Ravi Kopra

Celebrate our diwali - can't you see
tonight the lamp lights are shining everywhere
on house tops, on roads, on rivers and streams
and people hugging each other offering sweetmeats

Plenty of harvest this year, wheat, grains, rice
Abundance of fruit, plums, apples, oranges, grapes
Lots of rains, rivers flowing full to brims
Air is full of roses, jasmine, sandalwood scents

Lovers are walking in streets, in shopping malls
Women dressed in colorful sarees, all bindi, kajal and surkhi
And men in their long kurtas, pajamas and chappals
holding hands they saunter under lights of diwali

The elderly with flower garlands and packets of
sweets in their hands are going to temples
for offerings, thanking gods for blessings -
sons' daughters' marriages, grandchildren newborns

Laughter, gaiety, festivity every street corner
people exchanging gifts, greeting each other
a little gup-shup, guft goo, some neighborhood news
like, do you know Laila and Majnu of our street got married!

Rama with Sita and Laxman have come home
Exhausted in long war, killing evil Ravana in Lanka
The monkey army of Hanuman is also back home
You see them everywhere everyday in Delhi and elsewhere

They too celebrate Dushera, Diwali and Lohri
hopping from roof tops to roof tops
jumping from tree to tree stealing food, goodies
teasing people, grinning, showing their teeth.

May the good gods kill all demons
May there be no more Ravuns
May all old Indians be blessed with grand kids
May all Indians have tons of gold at home.