A young second generation Indian in the US was asked by his mother to
explain the significance of "Diwali" to his younger brother, this is
how
he went about it...

" So, like this dude had, like, a big cool kingdom and people liked him.
But, like, his step-mom, or something, was kind of a bitch, and she
forced her husband to, like, send this cool-dude, he was Ram, to some
national forest or something...

Since he was going, for like, something like more than 10 years or so..
he decided to get his wife and his bro along... you know..so that they
could all chill out together. But Dude, the forest was reeeeal scary ...



really man... they had monkeys and devils and
like that. But this dude, Ram, kicked ass with darts and bows and
arrows... so it was fine.

But then some bad gangsta boys, some jerk called Ravan, picks up his
babe (Sita). And boy, was our man, and also
his bro, Laxman,... all the gods were with
him... So anyways,you don't mess with gods. So, Ram, and his bro get
an army of monkeys..Dude, don't ask me how they trained the damn
monkeys... just go along with me, ok...

So, Ram, Lax and their monkeys whip this gangsta's in his own hood.
Anyways, by this time, their time's up in the forest..and anyways...it
gets kinda boring,you know... no TV or malls or
like that. So,they decided to hitch a ride back home... and when the
people realize that our dude, his bro and the wife are back home... they
thought, well, you
know, at least they deserve something nice... and they didn't have any
bars
or clubs in those days... so they couldn't take them
out for a drink, so they, like, decided to smoke and ...and since
they also had some lamps, they lit the lamps also... so it was pretty
cooool...you know
with all those fireworks... Really, they even had some local band play
along
with the fireworks... and you know, what, dude, that was the very first,
no kidding.., that was the very first music-synchronized fireworks...
you
know, like the 4th of July stuff, but just, more cooler and stuff, you
know. And, so dude, that was how, like, this festival