Dear Editor,
The name change of the Miss Diwali pageant to the Miss Guyana Sari Pageant is the response of the organisers to the calls for the disassociation of the festival from the event.
What is unfortunate, is that the committee continues to call itself a National Diwali Committee. The diya remains dominant in all of their advertising and promotions and they will host the event during the time of Diwali.
The sari is supposed to be the dominant theme, or rather the wearing of the sari, as the defenders of the pageant have said. It is interesting, from the photographs in the media of the launch ceremony, that none of the “young, attractive and unmarried girls” which the National Diwali Committee called for and selected wore any sari at their launch ceremony; in fact, it is even more fascinating that none of the members of the Diwali Committee wore any sari. Gitanjali Singh reminds us in her letter in Monday’s Stabroek News (‘Use the occasion to educate, not quibble about the pageant name’) that every samskar has its purpose. In reclaiming Diwali from the pageant, we have an opportunity to understand that the rituals and festivities are not separate from real life.
A real life which is bound up by violence and savagery. More recently, the attack on Budhia and her family in Canal Number Two is an attack on all of us. Can we remember during the various rituals, festivities and celebrations, that Diwali can be about hope for better?
Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
