The sky had begun to acquire a lightness, a fluorescent nimbus the lights of the growing town threw up. And for the first time, people began to use strings of coloured electric bulbs for Deepavali. It was more, well, modern. Then, candles came into vogue. And at last, the little earthen lamps came back, redesignated as ethnic light.
Lamps change, while light remains.
But what gets transmuted irrevocably is the darkness, and its mysteries. And to many, Deepavali becomes an urban legend of light accompanied by whisky and kebabs.