Happy Diwali everybody

Weeeee.....wish you a merry Diwali
We wish you a merry Diwali
We wish you a merry Diwali
....and a happy Halloween

As old skool Bazlar Newsdeskittes will know, I am a practising Buddhist. As such today is a special day for me and not just for me, but from my good friend Ajay at the Taj. Because today is Diwali, which is like Christmas Day for both Buddhists and Hindus.

What's a Hindu? You might ask, lay eggs! ;-)) Sorry all you Hindus in the House of Newsdesk, that was not intended as a racislistical slur on your fine religion. It was a joke that my good friend Dave the roofer always cracks.

Other jokes Dave always cracks are:

Q: What's a Greek urn?
A: Five bob a week

Q: How'd you make a Swiss roll?
A: Push him down the hill

Q: How do you make a Maltese Cross?
A: Punch him on the nose

Q: How do you make a Venetian blind
A: Poke him in the eye

The thing is, it's gentle humour, not racism, Dave the roofer has no problem with Greeks, the Swiss, Malta or the people of Venice.

But it's this kind of humour that the dear old Beeb has decided to outlaw - they've introduced a whole new set of rules about comedy. It can no longer be rude, humiliating or offensive. I think it's possibly political correctness gone mad.

Mind, if we didn't introduce rules like this, the likes of Jim Davidson would still be doing the rounds with his characterisation of a hapless West Indian called Chalkie.

Back in Lincoln, the centre forward of my local boys football club was black and everyone called him Chalkie. The manager told us that we weren't to call him Chalkie, that it was racist and bad. But we didn't know, all we saw was Jim Davidson's 'harmless fun'.

So, actually, now I come to think of it, maybe Dave's Hindu gag is a bit out of order. So please accept my apologies my Hindu friends.

I'm pretty sure the Hindus will accept my apology, Gandhi was a Hindu, they're basically the original hippies (although, I suppose the Christians might argue otherwise - still that's religion for you).

So, if you're out and about, if you see an Indian, go and wish him a merry Diwali.

Peace out

Barry
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