Deepavali in Animal Land

A dog and a cat lived in a house as pets. Every year they watch their masters celebrating Deepavali in full gaiety and splendor. It is Deepavali day today and the house is well-lit and people exchange wishes, sweets and gifts.

The pets who watch the happenings wonder why only humans get to celebrate Deepavali and why not the animals? So they decide to meet with their wild friends and discuss about planning a celebration. They go to the nearby forest and meet the wild animals – their relatives and friends. The animals are surprised to see the pets, who have been living in the city for all these years. The pets say that they came here to tell them about Deepavali. Since the wild animals have not heard about it, the dog and the cat briefly tell the story of the wicked demon, Narakasura and why Deepavali is celebrated.

All the animals listen to the story in awe and love the whole idea of celebration. One of the animals wonder why they should celebrate when there is no demon among animals. The elephant says a demon need not necessarily be in a particular form, it can be any savage, brutal quality present inside anyone. They are then reminded about the story of the wicked lion and the clever rabbit. The lion is personified as Narakasura for his cruel acts and they see a reason now to celebrate the victory over the death of the wicked lion.

Deepavali is a festival of lights and the question now is how will they celebrate with lights in a forest? The animals are terrified of lights or fire and do not go near it. While they are all thinking about it, the rabbit exclaims that they will take the help of the fireflies who can be their lights.

Students dressed up as fireflies come to the stage and spread their lights around. The jungle gets lit up and all the animals enjoy and have fun together. The cat and the dog happily go back to their masters to join in another round of Deepavali celebrations.