Diwali Reads
Diwali is known as the festival of lights and is associated with great cheer and celebrations with family and friends. It’s in no way connected to books. But just out of curiosity, I googled the two words together, Diwali and Books.
To my surprise, I found that there are many books explaining what Diwali is. These are mostly targeted at NRI kids or foreign readers. These give the background of what the festival is about, why it’s celebrated, and how to have fun with it. But what I didn’t find were books one could read during this Diwali season.
That got me thinking. Since Diwali is the festival where we worship goddess Laxmi, a natural fit would be some good old mythology books to dip into. Lakshmi: The Goddess of Wealth And Fortune by Devdutt Pattanaik and Hindu Goddesses by David Kinsley would perhaps be the apt choices to start off with. Another aspect of goddess Lakshmi is how she is associated with wealth. So, perhaps books on some of the world’s greatest wealth creators like Warren Buffett or Dhirubhai Ambani or even a word of advice from Napolean Hill’s Think and Grow Rich or from Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad poor Dad would help. Diwali is also a festival where a lot of Mithai (sweets) is gifted so perhaps cookery books with Mithai recipes could be a good Diwali read for homemakers.
My choice would be books by celebrity chefs like Sanjeev Kapoor and Tarla Dalal. There’s also one on vegan Diwali Mithais by Richa Ingle. And for the men who associate Diwali with playing card games, there are a plethora of books for sharpening your skills at poker, rummy or bridge.
But interestingly, I couldn’t find a single book on the Diwali favourite teen patti. So, this is a Diwali tip for authors looking to write a self-help book that will make them loads of money.
Last but not least, there is a flip to Diwali, which we all tend to ignore. It is the air and noise pollution caused by the firecrackers. In this regard, I recommend the recent book How to Grow Fresh Air by Kamal Meattle and Barun Aggarwal. Here, India’s top experts teach you how to beat air pollution at an individual level.
So this year, along with the lights let’s consider making Diwali about enriching the world by enlightening our minds and increasing our wealth of knowledge too.