This work is copyright M.A. Mohanraj 1994, all rights reserved. Please don't repost this or make it publically accessible via FTP, mail server, or archive site without my explicit permission.
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Earthen lamps were lit in almost every house, and flowers garlanded pictures of the goddess. It was Lakshmi's night tonight, the festival of Diwali, and throughout Sri Lanka and India, joyous worshippers prepared to stay awake all night, in celebration of the goddess of wealth, prosperity and happiness, or in celebration of one of the many other gods associated with the holiday. Mina followed the rituals, but her heart was heavy as she wove wreaths with ink-stained fingers. Her book was going well, but since Suresh's death had left her a wealthy widow a year previously, she had cared little for it. Her eyes went often to a small photo on the windowsill, of a young woman in a green sari.