A Diwali Story

Diwali (Deepavali in Tamilnadu), as everybody knows, is a celebration of the triumph of good over evil. Driving home this evening in heavy Diwali traffic I had time to recall my first Diwali in Salem as an Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon. Festivals have a way of being woven into our lives. This one is about an interesting weave that brought together my profession and the sparkling festival of Diwali. In 1986 I had returned to Tamilnadu after several years in Kerala and a short stint in Annamalai University. It was Diwali time. The festival came and went. The sulfurous odour of expended fireworks and the haze of smoke were still in the air when I got one of my first professional hospital calls. It was two days after Diwali. The young man looked miserable lying in a hospital ward with a broken jaw and several missing teeth. His demure young wife, hardly out of her teens, stood uncertainly near the bed. The boy told me his painful story- literally and figuratively . It must have been painful. Try telling a long story with a broken jaw. I don’t remember his name. Let’s call him Kannan.
Kannan had gone to his wife’s home for the traditional Thalai Diwali. In Tamilnadu the new groom mandatorily spends the first Diwali after marriage in his wife’s place. It is called Thalai Diwali. The young groom is usually given a gold ring by his in laws. Kannan for some reason did not get his ring. I think he refused to stay overnight or something. The young fellow was terribly distraught and went home smarting from the insult and ignominy of not getting his golden ring. He did what most upset young men do. He drank away his blues. At some point he became so maudlin at the loss of face that he decided it was not worth living. He added some pesticide to his hooch. The pesticide apparently did not go well with the liquor and he puked the whole lot onto his living room floor. His cup of woes was full. Now sober and brooding he decided he would not give up. He walked out into the fields and threw himself into a nearby well knowing that he would certainly drown. The well was dry and he fell on hard rock. The next morning a search party found him alive and bleeding in the well. He was inconsolable. He had lost face (and some teeth too). He had failed again. Lying in the hospital room he had time to think and reflect. His new wife and her parents rushed to the hospital. Amidst the crying, hugging and reconciliation his father in law slipped the contentious gold ring on his son in law. Everything was forgotten. That was how I saw him- Repenting in a hospital general ward, two days after Diwali, with a broken jaw and missing teeth and of course a brand new ring on his finger. I operated on him and he had his teeth replaced a few weeks later. They returned many Diwalis later with a grinning child on the wife's hip. I think he had the gold ring on his finger too. They looked happily married. Diwali has a way of letting good triumph over evil- even if it has its twists and turns.
Have a great Diwali!
George