Hey AI, You Can’t Ever Replace Diwali

By Gauri Naik 

There’s a photo on a desktop somewhere. 

A wooden doorway lined with little clay diyas, their flames dancing against the walls. Marigold garlands hung over the carved arches, and warm golden light spilt across the stone floor, catching on everything it touches. 

Then, emerges the wish: Happy Diwali, mentioning homes that smell of ghee & cardamom and evenings that never seem to end; a manufactured feeling. 

The machine had done its homework, but it missed the mark. It will always miss the mark. Because it has never experienced this the way all of us 1-billion-something people do. 

It has never sat cross-legged beside its grandmother in Maharashtra, coaxing a stubborn coil of chakli into shape, enjoying the aroma of besan laddoos browning in ghee in the kitchen. It has never watched the ghats of Varanasi flicker into gold as a thousand lamps find their way onto the river. It has never crouched at the doorstep of a home in Tamil Nadu, tracing a kolam into the morning dust before the day begins. It has never shown up at a friend’s house in Chandigarh to overindulge in the pinni she made. It has never stood at the door with a full stomach, packed bags, and a heart that isn’t ready to leave. 

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No matter how much AI thinks & analyses, it has failed to understand that even though it is made by humans, it will never be humane. 

Time and again, across wars & calamities, regions & religions, caste & class, ethnicities & festivities, shared achievements in arts & sciences, centuries & civilisations, and, I’m no cosmos expert, still, I hope, across universes, that is the one singular trait that keeps us special. 

Diwali is just one reminder of it. It is an absolute emotion that lives in a billion hearts, in a billion different ways. 

It is the nostalgia of everything that has been, the excitement of everything that is, and the anticipation of everything yet to come.

As we step into another year of the magical lights & delights, let’s keep it real, keep it original, and keep it human. 

Happy Diwali! 

P.S. Thank you, AI, for sticking to what you know best: pictures.