Diwali : Light a lamp to help children| Poem by Tanyaa, 14, Kolkata

Light a lamp to grant a girl the right to her studies
Don’t let her hands be scarred and muddy
Grant her a textbook in her hand instead of a cracker
So she would be freed from the cycle of deadly manufacture

Light a lamp to give in the hands of a boy a cricket bat
So he doesn’t have to damage himself for 16 hours flat
Let him enjoy and scream under the sun in the fields
Instead of him ensuring the anar boxes are sealed

Light a lamp to save them from being covered in paper ashes
Save them from making the magnesium matches
Of the phooljadis that they were meant to play with and not make
But alas, they are bound to be in there for their family’s sake

Inhumane are those who bound the innocent ones to the cycle of wrath
We know better for we will be leading the little ones to the path
of lightness and good as we will free them like we should

From the misery and torture that they have for so long withstood

Light a lamp, fly a lantern, pop a paper pataka
For the children, irrespective of whom they regard their god, Ram or Allah
For the children who deserve to be celebrating among us
For their tender fingers to be full of lamps and not cuts

Light a lamp to join me in saving hundreds of lives
To ensure that every single one of them survives
And escapes the malicious, deadly cycle of wrath
Light a lamp to lead them into goodness’ path.