Don't Invite Any Zombies to a Celebration of Diwali

It's Diwali! For those of you who aren't familiar with that, Diwali is a festival celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists around the world. Of course, what Diwali actually celebrates differs depending on who you ask, but here's my shot at a quick and dirty Hindu Diwali story:

Once upon a time there was a king, and he had three queens. When he was ready to retire, he wanted to give the throne to his son Ram, but one of the queens really wanted her son to become king, so she redeemed a boon that the king owed her and forced him to banish Ram for 14 years. Her son wasn't too happy about that and wanted Ram to be king, but Ram wanted to obey his father. So Ram, his wife Sita, and his brother Lakshman set off into the woods. While they were there, the evil Ravan came and kidnapped Sita and took her to his kingdom in Lanka. Ram and Lakshman went and saved her, and by that time their banishment was over and they made their way back to their kingdom. The people were overjoyed and, because it was a new moon, they lit a rows of lamps to guide them home through the darkness.

So, what does this festival of lights mean? Well, we still light lamps representative of the ones that led the way to Ram's coronation, but to me it's more about symbolic light, best represented in my favorite Sanskrit mantra:


Om asato ma sad gamaya, tamso ma jyotir gamaya, mrityorma mritam gamaya.
Lead us from falsehood to truth, from darkness to light, from death to immortality.

Diwali is a time to think about the past year and the next one, and to be with family, and eat good food. For me, it's always been a relatively quite holiday, one we've always celebrated at home without a great deal of hooplah. But the decorations and singing of songs and exchange of sweets always has a special place in my heart.

Diwali is also a time when I stop to think about what it means to me to be of Indian descent. Being devoted to interfaith plurality, my own interpretation of Hinduism is always on my mind, developing and changing with my own spiritual needs. But being Indian isn't something I think about a lot. Sometimes I forget that I'm not one of the Caucasian majority. But Diwali's rich culture makes me appreciate it, even if it's not something I actively advertise.

As an American of Indian descent and a Hindu, I must say that I really appreciated President Obama's recognition of Diwali this year. It is true that Diwali was celebrated in the White House under our last president, but he never attended the ceremony. This year, Obama actually lit a lamp himself under the watchful eye of a Hindu priest, and also released an official Diwali greeting, asking Americans to "join together across denominations, religions, and cultures to make habit of empathy and reach out to those most in need, to share the blessings we enjoy, and advance the cause of peace in all corners of our world," a true Diwali-esque sentiment if I've ever heard one.

Home Grown

We've really been trying to get out and pick some fresh fruits, and we finally got around to it! Unfortunately, Richard couldn't get away from the office, but last week Katie, Aaron and I ventured out East in the search of some YUMMY.

We actually intended to go apple picking, and while the apple season does extend into October, it seems that we missed the boat on that one. We wound up a place that had all kind of different fruit trees. Their deal was that you pay a ten dollar deposit to go into the orchard with a bag, and then pick to your heart's content. Fruit is one dollar per pound. If you pick less than ten pounds, you're SOL; if you pick more, you pay the difference.

We had an amazing time going up and down the rows, exploring the trees. It was mostly peaches, although we did encounter a few other fruits. It was so much fun climbing and picking and skipping around. We retrieved nine or so pounds of peaches, plus a few apples and nectarines, and the lady threw in a few more to round us out at just over ten pounds, which seems like an incredible deal to me.

We left there on the search for a farm that advertised garlic. We found it, and soon realized that the garlic was actually a one weekend festival, but we were still able to take this lovely picture:

We were on the lookout for goat cheese. Katie insisted that there was a roadside stand that boasted great goat cheese, but we never found it. Instead, we fell upon Pindar wineries. I expected it to be on the pricey side, but their tasting was actually very reasonable. For $4 you are able to select up to five wines, and for $5 you get a package of Carr Table Water Crackers and cheese. Since we couldn't find the cheese stand, Katie asked for a sun-dried tomato basil goat cheese to accompany our wine, and it was a very excellent choice.  The cheese and crackers were delicious, and trying all of the different wines was a lot of wine.  We even got coupons for a free tasting at Duck Walk, another vineyard in the area.

It really was an incredible day.  I tend to forget that I live in such an amazing place, and it's good to be reminded that I need to appreciate it and take advantage of it.