In a quest for validation-by-sticker dating back to those gold stars from third grade, desis are yet again pitching a Diwali stamp to the US Postal Service. The online petition comes with a ‘No fair! Rashid got a bigger piece’ twist, because an Eid stamp came out years ago. Since both the Diwali and Dalip Singh Saund stamps have been rejected before, the latest try shows we can take a lickin’ and keep on stickin’.
Some experts told that the stamp being issued was not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’, said Kumar. “Diwali‘s recognition by the US Postal Department… will also honour a civilisation that has the merit of being a continuous propagation for 6,000 years, and Diwali is celebrated not just by Hindus but also Sikhs and even Christians. It’s like Christmas,” he contended.
My assessment is a bit too flip. It’s true that in the email age, procuring a Diwali stamp is like flyering the Titanic. But it’s actually free marketing for the South Asian brand. You might not have to explain your damn holiday to your elderly neighbors any more. You might get a sponsorship from Illuminations.
You might even pull a Hannukah (eight days of presents? It’s a shanda) and leave work early every day in November. ‘Ours is a very respectful religion,’ you might say. ‘We respect the ancient tradition of shubh ghanta. Also called happy hour. We take converts.’
The Diwali stamp, when it does arrive, will be more significant because it was once rejected.
I was just on the site signing another petition and the Diwali stamp one is one of the 10 most active–two months after this post was written–and it has over 150,000 signatures! This is not as many as the over 350,000 that the “The Stop Ashlee Simpson” petition’s gathered, but impressive nonetheless.
um can we redesign the dewali stamp the font looks a little highschool project-esque.and the image has the potential of being so so powerful not just the dipti on a burgandy gradient. (i feel that visaully it comes accross like the front of indian american circulars for community happenings more then the polished presentation both deserved and needed to propose a stamp for a major holiday), though i do appreciate the work put into this and really belive in the concept of having a stamp to commerate the holiday. thank you so much and great start!!
That’s not the official stamp proposal, it’s a mockup I threw together. Have you seen an official version?
thanks manish, i must say as a mock up the work is great, my apoligies as soon as i wrote the previous comment i realized thats probably not THE stamp, but a simple visual to help the readers of the article begin to visualize the possibility- and once you see it that way, it does so effectively…let us know where we can get a peak at the stamp-stamp! 🙂