A song of light

the long version

On the eve of a recent Diwali, (that glorious Festival of Lights), the cantankerous and vainfloriousmoneylender, Salaram Baiman, comes face to face with a Shakespearean truth, to wit : "There is a divinity that shapes our ends ..." The fantastical events he experiences transforms his view of the world and of himself. That Diwali his feet are set upon a oath that liberatess him from his venial bondage to avarice and self-absorption. The Goddess Laxmi with her helpmates illuminates his understanding of the true significance of Diwali and the moral imperative of benevolence in a world that is disproportionately poor and disenfranchised.