Celebrating Diwali in Israel: Diary of a reporter from the warzone

On a normal day after recovering from the hangover of my Europe vacation, I was asked if I wanted to join the Republic team in Israel to cover the Israel-Hamas war. "I need to talk to my family and confirm" was the only response I could give at that moment, I wasn't expecting that. After long sessions of discussions with the family on "Opportunity v/s Risk", I decided to hop on that flight to Tel Aviv. One thing that got ignored in this whole discussion was Diwali falling during the same duration of my trip. Not that it would change my decision, but I was not prepared to spend Diwali without family, this will be the first. I could only be ignorant about this fact now. 

Since landing in Israel, the work has kept me occupied. Being in a time zone 3 and half hours later than the Indian time zone but still working for the home audience, the day starts right at 5 AM with preparing food, getting ready, hitting the ground and ending the day after 9 PM local Israel time. Sixteen to eighteen, yes the struggle is real. Moreover, the situation is not normal during the day here as well. Imagine my look first, over the normal clothes I wear a 10 Kg bulletproof jacket and a helmet which is not too light. In the last 10 days, I have escaped being hit by 2 missiles, tackled tensed locals who look at us with all suspicion, dealt with local police and I can go on about it for the whole day. 

It was yesterday that my family reminded me of Dhanteras, not that I forgot, but I was trying to be ignorant. After the whole day of reporting and wrapping up my last bulletin for the day, I headed back to the apartment in Israel. So, my team and I have rented an apartment from an Israeli Jewish family who have moved because of the bad situation as it is just 300 metres from the Gaza border. This facility is governed by the IDF (Israel Defence Forces).  

Sitting in the apartment, the whole team was very low (emotionally), it was a first for all without family. Just at some moment, I saw an idol of Lord Ganesha sitting peacefully on a shelf in that apartment (maybe the family bought it as an artefact). Guys, see that idol, why don't we celebrate Dhanteras with a pooja? 

Honestly, there was a spark in everyone's eyes. The ideas started flowing immediately. We decided to clean the house, get dressed and prepare festive food. Then we found a printer, printed a picture of Goddess Lakshmi and placed it beside Lord Ganesha. We then offered the kheer to God and had our delicious food. It was not the best Dhanteras still not bad.
I still wonder how the almighty makes sure we are happy and content even when we are not in the best of situations. Isn't that a blessing in disguise?

(Republic's Saloni Srivastava is presently in Israel for covering Israel-Hamas war. This is an opinion piece)