So, it's that Diwali week: three hugely significant days in the Hindu calendar — Rama's vanquishing of Ravana, and the triumph of good over evil. The city comes alive with lights and diyas and the new SC ruling of no firecrackers, and animals are grateful and families get together and play cards and eat sweetmeats, and no one works for three days and we receive hundreds of jpegs on WhatsApp, with messages wishing us 'on this auspicious day of Deepavali…' with diyas in different exposures, and they are mass messages sent by people we don't know, or don't interact with for the rest of the year. And, there is a day when we clean out our houses and hope that with all the dust and grime, all negative thoughts are removed, and then we hope that the nation will be cleansed of all the negativity and toxicity that have seeped into her pores in the last few years.

And, then, on November 8, along with celebrating New Year, we look at all our new banknotes and remember this day two years ago, when on the stroke of midnight, as we rid ourselves of demons, we also got demonetised, and we wonder, has there ever been a bigger disaster thrust upon the country? And, what is the price that has been paid, as cash and black money have returned into our lives with a vengeance, and businesses have been destroyed. So, what was the point of all the heartache? And not a moment of remorse.