Diwali Festival of Lights - a Short Story for Children

Diwali is a Hindu festival of lights, the festivals like Diwali remind us of the brilliant display of colorful fireworks which explode in the dark nights, sweets, new cloths by young children, it is also a day when people worship goddess Lakshmi, the Hindu deity of wealth and prosperity. Diwali is longed by young children for year long so that they can enjoy fire crackers, put earthen lamps fill with oil and light them and decorate their houses. They also wait for Diwali or Deepawali festival, when they get different sweets, new cloths and gifts by parents and relatives.

I am here today not to describe you about Diwali or Deepawali, but to give you pleasure by reading a story of a boy called Raju.

Raju's adventure in the night
Raju was a poor boy in a village, his father was a farmer and he had two small brothers too. Though economically they were poor but his father always taught his children to be brave, honest and not to fear any body if they are acting and following the truth path. Raju a ten year boy is studying in class fifth. In order to substantiate his family financial condition Raju is to distribute newspaper in the morning in his bicycle throughout the village. He would after distributing the newspaper, come home and what ever food his mother used to feed him, relish it and proceed to his school which was fifteen kilometers away from his village. Raju used to love study and wanted to be a police officer when he grew.

His village was near the sea shore and adjacent to sea was a small hill with numerous caves. In high tides sea waves used to hit the caves and some times even fill it with sea water. Raju being an adventurous in temperament, used to explore the caves and play with his friends.

In his village border there lived a rich gentleman with a big bungalow. The bungalow had high raised compound, all around the house guarded by rough looking security men with guns and with ferocious dogs. Everyday morning Raju goes to the bungalow for delivering the newspaper, but he is confronted by the security men who took the newspaper at the gate itself. This bungalow has been a talk of the village and thing of curiosity for the innocent villagers. Village women folk's favorite gossip was about this bungalow.

Raju's village was a fishermen's community and most of the inhabitant were fishermen. Men folk moved out to the sea at early in the morning to grab the natures bounty. They would only return with what the nature has to offer them in the evening and have their dinner and sleep early, so that they can wakeup early in the next morning. The village women on the next day proceed to the nearest town in buses to sell the pervious day catch from the sea in the town market. With the prize they get, they procure the everyday bare requirements and come back in the afternoon. They prepare lunch feed themselves and their children. In the late afternoon they dry tiny fishes in the sun or sometimes put these small fishes in a platform and give smoke to dry them and prepare dry fish.

With heavy mechanized fishing gave them livelihood but other hand, resulted in depletion of fishes and fewer fish catch. Some days they would return home, without any catch. This was a worrying issue for the villagers. There was a time when they used to get natures bounty in abundant. They used to get good catch of Tunas and other big fishes and enjoyed the nature to the full extent. But gradually the times have changed and catching medium or small fishes are considered to be lucky for the day. They never thought of harvesting fishes nor the out come of heavy fishing. Nature is very flexible, but to some extent. If you put too much pressure on the nature the food cycle will change and there can be extinction of some fish species. Never over exploit the nature, give respect to the nature it will come to your rescue.

Raju and his friends favorite past time adventure was to explore the caves which was near the sea, bring home different sea shells, star fishes and other sea articles, dry them keep them as their prized procession. Some times during the holidays, Raju and his gang carry tiffin's and spare dress and swim in the sea to their heart's content, play games on the beach and have picnic in the caves. After their bath in the sea, change into their dry and spare attire and sit for having their snacks or tiffin brought by them from their homes. While relishing their snacks they would chit chat. Each one would narrate a variety of stories about sea, caves, monsters, and dragons, under the sea kingdom, some of their parent's adventures on the sea and about pirates. Some of them will tell cooked up stories and some stories they heard from their parents and grand parents. This would go on and on without stop, till late in the evening. When sun sets and the caves started getting dark, these little boys would return to their dwellings and keep on gossiping to their parents and grand parents, how they have enjoyed their entire day on the sea beaches and in the caves. This would go till late in the night.

One such night when, Raju woke up in middle of the night and saw flashing lights from the sea. At first Raju thought it was his dreams and tried to sleep, but when he realized that he was awake, he again starred at the sea. To his surprise and utter disbelief, he again saw flash of lights coming from the sea. His curiosity increased; first he thought that they were some insects shining brightly. He woke up and sat on his bed and looked at the flashing lights, slowly the lights began to be more bright. He than decided to go the shore and find out himself.

He quickly dressed up and put his shoes and rushed to the shore by lightly closing the door. The shore was completely dark and it was difficult to reach to the spot on rocky side of the sea. But since he was very well versed on the terrain, he could some how managed to reach to the spot. The sea had high tides and sea waves were splashing on all the sides and his face and clothes began to get wet. At a distance he saw a small boat was fast approaching towards the shore where the caves had opening. Four heavy built men jumped on the beach and pulled the boat to the shore. The boat was loaded with boxes and with great difficulty they pulled the boat to the shore. Two men were already awaiting on the shore, all of them greeted each other and started unloading the boxes to the shore. After all the boxes were unloaded each of them carried two boxes on their head and carried inside the caves. Raju couldn't understand what was happening right in front of him. But since Raju was always brave and fearless lad, he too went towards the caves where these men had taken the boxes. But on reaching at the cave to his utter surprise, he couldn't find any life in it. He searched all the sides of the cave, but he couldn't find any trace of the men. He first thought that he has searching a wrong cave. He went to the next cave but that too was empty. He searched few more caves but his search bear no fruits. He felt tired and sleepy, so he decided to come on the next day morning and search afresh.

The hidden door
The next morning Raju was busy with his routine of distributing newspaper and then he went to school and returned late in the afternoon. His mother said that Diwali or Deepawali was fast approaching, what would he like to have in this Diwali. Raju gave his long list of fire crackers, sweets, new dress. But seeing his long list his mother with a sad face told that their financial condition are not good and the harvesting is also not to their satisfaction. So this year Diwali, they may not get all his demands fulfill.

So, with a heavy heart Raju went out to play with his friends. There with his friends Raju shared his last night adventure. All kids were very eager to go and explore the caves. So they set forth to go to caves. On their way to caves they all discussed how they are going to celebrate this Diwali or Deepawali. Some said that in the Diwali they will be getting great number of fire crackers, some said that they will stitch new cloths in this Diwali. Some said that they will go to their grand parents place to celebrate their Diwali.

In short while they reached the sea shore and started exploring the caves. Raju showed the cave where last night the strange people suddenly disappeared. After more than 2 hours of search suddenly one of the friends shouted that he has discovered some thing. All of them rushed in the dark and deep inside the cave. On reaching the spot Raju saw a small opening which was closed by a heavy grilled door. They all pushed with all their might, slowly the grilled door opened with a cranking sound. The door led them to another tunnel, which led them to a cellar of the big bungalow. The cellar was filled with big boxes, big crates of wine and lot other articles. As the kids gang was full of curiosity, they started to explore each and every box. First they could not open the heavy boxes. They found some tools, which Raju and his friends used and opened some boxes. They found old carved stone and marble statues. In some boxes they found gold bars marked by strange markings. Some shining uncut stones in different colours, they look like Gem stones. Suddenly they heard some voices coming towards them, they all decided that it is the time they should depart and come back another day.

This incident left very strange feelings in the small minds of the kids. He and his gang didn't have any clue. They were without any answer, they felt helpless. Raju who was brave and positive, came with a brilliant idea. His father's distance uncle was an intelligent man and was in police. He was quite sure that his uncle would have a solution to this strange situation.

Catching of Criminals
So, next day Raju went to his uncle's house and was greeted by his uncle on the front door. His aunty and his uncle were very happy to see Raju. They enquired about his family welfare, how he was faring in his studies. His aunty made him to sit in front of the fire place and gave him some coconut cakes, sweets and some cold drinks to him. After Raju had finished the partakes, he answered their queries. He than narrated the whole incident from the flashing of lights, boxes and the discoveries in the cellar. His uncle sat very seriously and with a stern voice advised Raju to be careful about the strange men and the big bungalow. He said that for quite some time police was after a gang which stole artifacts, priceless statues from ancient temples and carrying unlawful activities and smuggling of gold and diamonds and gem stones. He told him that this gang was very dangerous and these people can go to any extent. His uncle also advised him not to talk and share this information to anybody, not even to his parents.

After spending some more time with his uncle, Raju took leave and returned. After some days lapsed, his uncle along with some more plain clothed police men came to his home. He was introduced to his uncle's boss who had come to meet him. This gentleman was the police chief and had come to investigate the situation. After some time Raju was asked to take the police party to the spot where he and his friends saw and discovered the unlawful articles.

On reaching to the cave quietly police men took different position and one after another went in the cellar. They saw & took photographs of all the articles and swiftly without making any sound climbed the stairs which lead them to the bunglow. Seeing the police the security men opened fire and police too fired back in defence. This battle lasted for an hour and so and two of the rough looking security men died and few police men were injured. But victory came to the police who forced the criminals to surrender. All the criminals and including the rich men ware taken into custody. The police chief appreciated Raju for his bravery and cooperation in bursting the gang and helping the police to catch the criminals.

Diwali or Deepawali gifts
On the day of diwali Raju was helping his father in cleaning the house, when he heard someone knocking on his front door. Raju's mother opened the door and finding them known made the guests to sit on the chairs. Meanwhile Raju finished the cleaning of the house came in and found the police chief and his uncle sitting in the drawing room. He greeted them and sat in one of the chairs. He was told that government has awarded him with bravery award and gave him scholarship for his further studies. He was also been given special cash prize and crackers and new dress to him and his family. Raju's dreams came true, goddess Lakshmi bestowed on him and his family with wealth and prosperity.

Fortune favours the brave!

Let me wish all my readers " Happy Diwali"