Students deserve to celebrate with loved ones

DIWALI, or the festival of lights, is two days away. People of Indian origin look forward to the celebration as a joyous time for reunions, bonding and good fun for the entire family.

Blessed are families, where each member is able to return home to celebrate this auspicious occasion.

Not every family is lucky, though. Sometimes, due to work or other reasons, the family unit becomes incomplete.

My daughter, who is pursuing a degree in a local university in the city, may not be able to return home for the celebration.

The simple reason being she has lectures on Tuesday and Thursday.

Returning home for a day trip, especially with the heavy traffic on the roads and unavailability of train and bus tickets, is simply not wise.

Many other Indian students, I believe, are in a similar situation.

This situation is definitely avoidable.

I recall something similar happening in the 1990s.

A group of Indian and Sikh students, who were studying at a university near my home, weren’t able to return to their homes to celebrate Deepavali because their semester exams were held before and after the festival.

Then, my wife and I decided to host them for a day.

We did our best to make sure they felt at home, in a home away from home. Tried we did, but to what extent we were successful as replacements for their loved ones, we don’t know. I truly felt for the students then.

This year, with my daughter’s predicament, I am feeling what the parents of those students would have felt.

The celebration would go on, but there would be pockets of vacuum in the family and in the festive atmosphere.