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Today (19 october 2017) is deepaawali, the biggest festival in India.
It may sound unbelievable, but it is the tenth Deepawali for the blog today (19 october 2017) ! The fact that we have lasted this long, and instead of losing steam, we seem to be adding new features to the blog means that we have come quite a long way from the first deepaawali of this blog in 2008.
We have covered 33 deepaawali songs in the blog in the past, and that includes all the well known deepaawali festival songs.
When we look at the deepaawali songs, we find that these songs can be broadly divided into two categories- happy and sad. Happy deepaawali songs exhort us to celebrate the festival, whereas sad deepaawali songs lament the fact the deepaawali may be happy for some but not quite so for others.
That should make us to think. How come the festival brings happiness for some but not for others, when presumably everyone is worshipping the same goddess Laxmi on the occasion !
I have give this matter some thought and I have come to my own conclusions.
I feel that we as Indians try to take short cuts instead of taking the trouble to achieve results the hard way, be it in our normal works, or in worship. So when we worship the goddess Laxmi, we think that doing her chaaploosi (singing her prayers) as well as bribing her (by offering her some chadhhaawa) does the trick. That way, we tend to believe that our gods are like our public officials.
Then people wonder why goddess Laxmi did not favour them. If one thinks about it, Goddess Laxmi does not favour the chaaploos and the bribe givers, rather she favours those who often do not even observe the festival of deepaawali. If we think about it, the richest and most prosperous nations of the world do not even observe deepaawali unlike Indians.
How is it that Americans, Germans, Japanese, South Koreans, people who do not even observe deepaawali are the most prosperous nations in the world ?
To my mind, they are prosperous because they actually worship two other Gods. The first is Goddess Saraswati. No, they do not do it by installing an idol of her on basant panchami, rather they do it by attaching enormous importance to quality education for their people.
A country’s wealth (defined as GDP per capita) is positively associated with its education expenditures. US spends 5.6 % of its GDP on education which amounts to $2600 per capita. India spends 3.3 % of its GDP on education and that adds up to a niggardly $ 50 per capita. So we see that US spends more money on education than the total GDP of India. Little wonder then that US citizens are in general vastly better educated.
After one is educated, that education must be used to build the nation. In other words, worship of goddess Saraswati must be followed by worship of Lord Vishwakarma. In India, manual labour is so looked down upon that blue collar workers, who help build the industry of a nation, are considered of low social status i India. We in India did not even worship Lord Vishwakarma till recently. It is only some one hundred years ago that British rulers introduced Vishwakarma Puja in India. It is the only Indian Puja that is held according to English calendar.
Put simply, we look down upon hands on work. We look down upon honest hard work. Whatever education that we as Indians receive gets wasted as it is not fruitfully employed.
Since we are neither properly educated nor properly trained in various vocations, so the quality of our output is poor. We do not appreciate quality. Little wonder then that our productivity is low which reflects in our abysmal per capita GDP of $ 1600, which is less that what US spends on education per capita.
When we worship goddess Laxmi on the Deepaawali night and hope that the goddess would bless us, how exactly is she going to bless us ? Surely it cannot be through lottery or jackpot. It will be through the same usual source, viz salary for the salaried, and through sales for the shop keeper. On the eve of Deepaawali, some staff earn “bonus” which a few days later end up in the bank accounts of shop keepers. So in effect it is the shop keepers who really get blessed by Goddess Laxmi during Deepaawali. 
On the occasion of Deepaawali, here is a song from “Shrimati Jee”(1952). This movie was directed by I S Johar for Filmistan, Bombay. The movie had Shyama, Nasir Khan, Ram Singh, Murad, Samson, Vimla, Indira, Prabha, Baldev Mehta, Ram Avtar, Yashwant, Mirazkar, Agha Miraz, Majnu, Johar etc in it.
There were ten songs in the movie. nine of these songs have been covered in the blog. This tenth and final song from the movie is a deepaawali song where people implore goddess Laxmi to arrive at their residence. Why goddess Laxmi would not favour them with her visit has been explained by me in the writeup above.
The song is sung by Shamshad Begam and chorus. Raja Mehdi Ali is the lyricist. Music is composed by Basant Prakash.
With this rare song, “Shrimati Jee”(1952) joins the list of movies that have all their songs covered in the blog.
I take this opportuity to wish all the contributors, visitors and well wishers of this blog a very happy, prosperous and safe Deepaawali. May Goddess Laxmi REALLY favour you with her blessing.
Song-Kabhi hamaare ghar bhi aao aao jee (Shrimati Jee)(1952) Singer-Shamshad Begam, Lyrics-Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, MD-Basant Prakash
Female Chorus
Male chorus
Lyrics
Kabhi hamaare ghar bhi aao aao jee
ghar aao jee
o nagad narayan jee
ek chhoti si jhhalak dikhlaao dikhlaao dikhlaao jee
ghar aao jee
o nagad narayan jee
nagad narayan
nagad narayan
nagad narayan jee jee
o nagad narayan jee
gairon ke ghar dekh tumhen
ham thhandi aahen bhar lete hain
tum par apna bas nahin chalta
haaye
tum par apna bas nahin chalta
door se darshan kar lete hain aen
door se na mukhdaa dikhaao na dikhaao na dikhaao jee
ghar aao jee
o nagad narayan jee
kabhi hamaare ghar bhi aao aao jee
ghar aao jee
o nagad narayan jee
dhobi kunjde bhaiyye(??) darzi
hamre peechhe laage hain
kayi dafa wo peeche aur ham
haaye
kayi dafa wo peeche aur ham
aage aage bhaage hain aen
in paapiyon se peechha chhudwaao chhudwaao chhudwaao jee
ghar aao jee
O satyanarayan jee
in mujrimon ko qaid karaao jee karaao jee karaao jee
o satyanarayan jee
in zaalimon ko phaansi latkaao latkaao latkaao jee
o satyanarayan jee
