Happy Diwali, and Saal Mubarak (Happy New Year)
Plus a couple of updates pertaining to previous posts
I’ll do the two updates first:
Peggy Hall went into further detail about the epic victory reported earlier this week, the main subject of my last piece, and I’ve also added it to that post as a pinned comment.
To those who asked if I had a non-Substack link to my first Voice of Micropixie piece, I now have a Rumble channel so feel free to share and also follow me there if you’re on that platform, as it’s one that doesn’t censor. By the way, I created an improved version with better visuals and fixed audio1.
Let’s get ready to Rumble.
Luckily I’m not late in wishing you Happy Diwali, as according to the Hindu Vikram Samvat calendar2, the Hindu Festival of Lights was yesterday and today.
In any case, yesterday was mostly about family visits and, of course, eating, so I barely touched my laptop.
I thought it was funny-ironic how, this year, Diwali fell on October 31st, ie. Hallowe’en. So our Hindu Festival of Lights fell on the same day where typically in the United States, and increasingly so in the UK, people like to dress up, often as macabre, ghastly characters. It’s a day when you’re encouraged to depict yourself in some gruesome or violent way.
In the morning I had gone to the bank to run an errand for my Mum, and the teller flaunted a massive realistic-looking fake knife going through her head with fake blood spilling out of the fake wound.
“Will that be all?” she asked, smiling up at me after the transaction was carried out, fake knife going through her skull.
Happy Diwali, love. I guess those huge holes in your head will let in the light.
“Um, yeah, that’s all.” I replied, marveling at how normal it has become to see such gory images in the most banal of settings on this particular day of the year.
But now also every day. And I don’t just mean Netflix.
Truthfully, I would have barely even noticed such a thing 3-4 years ago, let alone had the accompanying thought. But I’m far more sensitive to evil now. There is horror aplenty in the world and blood, gore, violence, it is all too banal.
Gosh, I don’t mean to sound like a killjoy, and not today especially…
Let in the light, right…
… I know that for Americans, Hallowe’en is a big holiday, and that there’s many sweet, inventive and funny things about it. (I have many photos as proof after years of living in the US).
But yeah, I’m pondering on whether to share something weird I saw on a visit to central London on Tuesday… nah, I don’t think I can do that today.
But I do want to share this particular video again about a very special Diwali gathering in SF 4 years ago, which I was lucky to celebrate with a couple of close friends and my sweet flatmate at the time. It was 2020, that time when it was heavily frowned upon for folks to meet in person because of the dreaded, deadly lurgy. If the CDC could have seen how small my friend’s place was and the fact that there were four of us in that tiny space — dangerously exposing each other to the air from our mouths and nostrils, ie. none of us wearing masks! — well I’m sure there would have been some serious castigation from Mr Horror himself, Dr Fauci, and Biden would have definitely wanted to lock us down up.
The five-day festival celebrates "the triumph of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, and good over evil" and honors Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and good fortune. Derived from the Sanskrit word dipavali, Diwali means "row of lights" or "row of clay lamps."
Don’t tell anyone but we had a lot of fun that evening, and laughed a lot. How dare we!
The word — and wish — for that night was libertad (freedom in Spanish) and as Peggy Hall says in the piece I link to above, regarding those that stood up to tyranny, “freedom found a voice through these brave individuals.”
Hasta La Victoria Siempre! Always…
And tomorrow is Bestu Varas (beginning of the year) therefore, Saal Mubarak (Happy New Year) to all of us! There is a tremendous amount of darkness to overcome in our world, so please everyone, let all the light into your heart and soul. ✨🪔✨
Finally, Substack is giving me — and you — a lil’ gift…
Here’s a treat with no tricks! I just heard that Substack is funding gift subscriptions to your favorite writers for a few days. From 10/31 to 11/4, Substack is offering eligible free subscribers a 1 month trial to Sane Francisco, on the house. So if you want to take them up on a free month to this publication, it will mean a payment from them to me, on behalf of you. I hope you accept the deal as it could amount to a bit of extra cash for me.
Back in September, I didn’t have time to do it all properly in time to publish for the 9/11 anniversary.
The Hindu calendar is different to the Gregorian calendar which adds additional days to the month to adjust for the mismatch between twelve lunar cycles.
Happy belated Diwali, Neshma!
Greetings from Essex! Thanks for shining the light ☀️