If Deepavali is all about dispelling the darkness, it must first arrive in the corridors of power, enter the corrupt vaults of bureaucracy and annihilate the callousness towards those living on the fringes in Mandur and Mavallipura. Let this light filter out into the streets, roll between the huts and the high-rises, and settle over the sidewalks.

It is no Deepavali if it leaves a significant chunk of population suffering in eternal darkness. Triumph of good over evil has meaning only if the struggle of the suffering lot does end in the realisation that those who were oppressed were nobler than those who oppressed them.

We are the oppressors. This is where enlightenment must begin.