“Light that little bulb inside you this year.” Mallika Dua shared this endearing message of hope on Diwali for people touched by the devastating Covid second wave.
00:00Hi, I wanted to make this video since many days. I think all of us who have lost people
00:13this year, lost the lights of their lives this year, Diwali is not something we are
00:20looking forward to as such. Because that is a day when you, even if you fight with your
00:28family, but this one day, you know, you, I think, perform like a family, right? But this
00:37year, it will be very painful and triggering for many people. I just wanted to say that
00:49it's okay. I don't think God or whoever you believe in targeted us specifically. It took
01:01everybody. And even in that, there is varying degrees of privilege and better or worse.
01:09I just wanted to say that this year on Diwali, everything will not be the same. A lot of people will feel
01:18a lot of lack. So I have decided that I will curate my own Diwali. So I talked to my therapist,
01:29I talked to my boxing trainer, I will meet both. I will take therapy, I will go to the gym. At home,
01:36I will try and meet whoever is there in my life, my family. And I'm not going to put any pressure on myself to dress up or celebrate or to, you know, perform anything like that. Because it's incomplete without family, right?
02:07And I'm going to talk to my nephew. I'm going to do these things. I will make my day a little busy so that it doesn't hit me in the face that, oh, it's Diwali and it's not the brightest one.
02:25Sorry, I'm rambling a little, but I wanted to make a video from a long time. Just to tell you guys, I'm sure there are many of us who are already struggling with this dilemma, right? Do we jump back into life and participate in everything or do we, or how do we shake off any sort of trauma that we have? And it's okay. We will do back and forth.
02:52But please, Diwali. Let's make sure that this Diwali doesn't feel like that. That's just, I mean, as cliche as it sounds, but we have to find that little, little light bulb inside us and be there for other people because
03:18I don't know if it's trauma bonding or what, but I think it just helps to know that we're not alone in this.
03:39And this is for everyone who has lost someone, who's nursing someone, who's grieving, who's grieving multiple people, who's grieving the living, anything. Just make sure that you light that little bulb inside you this year. Do whatever you want.
03:59So I'm going to take therapy. I'm going to go to the gym. I'm going to speak to my nephew. I'm going to try and cook something for myself. I will distribute gifts and I will watch something mindless and I will make sure that I don't put any pressure on myself to remind myself that this was a special day and it's not so for you or something like that.
04:22Genuinely, every day is as special or as banal as the other. And life is only the love that you give and you get. So happy Diwali.
