The festival of lights and only lights

For years Diwali was a delightful time, wake up at 4 in the morning, do ganga snanam just to answer an affirmative yes when relatives ask Ganga Snanam aacha ? at five AM in the morning

But as a kid the most delightful thing about Diwali was the crackers. I grew up in a time not shrouded by media, cell phones and breaking news. Every year we used to get a box of Crackers from my uncle and it was a delight to burst the entire box We started the day with a 1000 wala, a string of 1000 small bombs which when exploded would wake everyone in the lane. Then we would proceed with the Sparkles and flowerpots just to add elegance to our celebration, and then get back to Bombs. Growing up I thought it was super cool to be an Indian kid, you got to burst bombs for a whole day. The thrill of a bomb started after the fuse was lit, it was a slow adrenalin rush until the time the explosion happened. Some of my friends further enhanced the Adrenalin rush by holding the Bomb in their hands while lighting the fuse, although these were the kind of things that led to freak accidents. I always played it safe, maintained all the precautions, wore slippers, lit bombs with an Agarbatti and not a sparkler ( A sparkler catches light faster, and sometimes the light of the sparkler blinds you , so before you know the fuse has reached its end). As a Kid I was blissfully oblivious to the smoke and sound, all that mattered was a bunch of kids blasting away with full freedom.

But as a teenager things started to change, I felt a sense of breathlessness on the evening of Diwali and my eyes would burn. The smoke and dust in the air was toxic, it took me sometime to realize the root cause. I also started noticing how the street animals suffered on Diwali, there was nowhere for them to go, some evil kids even tied up crackers to the tails of animals. One Diwali we declared no more pollution causing crackers at home. Sparkles and flowerpots were okay, just to keep up with traditions, but no bombs that would scare pets, no rockets that could easily go hay-wire and light up the neighbor’s clothes instead of illuminating the sky. The Sparkles and Flowerpots were also rationed. Instead Diwali became a festival of only lights. Evenings were about lighting Lamps and watching the houses getting lit up beautifully. The Doors of the house were opened so that the cats could sneak in if they wanted to. However the year was 2010, and the rest of the world carried on like there was no tomorrow. Slowly the news channels started covering the air pollution levels around Diwali, but mostly people threw caution to the winds to burst crackers. There was also a steady import of Chinese crackers, which were extremely cheap and beautiful, and the low costs made them lucrative to be burst during weddings, birthday parties or when children graduated from Kindergarten.

The Smoke remained unbearable on the evening of Diwali, for people with Breathing issues, it became a nightmare, there was low chatter here and there of Cracker Bans but nothing serious was ever done, it was a question of the Livelihood of whole of Sivakasi, the cracker town of India which depended on Crackers, the religious sentiments of Hindus, and the general joy and gaiety of Diwali.

This year with the Pandemic, there has been a reduction in the number of Crackers burst. Most of the cities have issued cracker Bans, but the bans are just lip service to the National Green Tribunal and are seldom enforced. In the case of Hyderabad a Ban was imposed just two days before the festival making it redundant since most people had already purchased fire-crackers by then and those who did not had access to shops which wanted to liquidate their inventory as early as possible

Diwali is the celebration of the Victory of God against evil. Air pollution is an evil, it is smoky, makes you uncomfortable, ruins the lives of animals as well, except for the fact that it has no horns, and maybe does not have a solid physical form, it has all the other attributes of evil

In the current times the Pandemic has wreaked havoc causing breathing difficulties, creating a toxic atmosphere is just adding fuel to the fire. The fight has to begin against the modern day evil of Air Pollution as well. I hope Diwali of the future generations are filled with lights and not sounds. Inhaling fumes of poisonous gas should be no one’s idea of fun Pandemic or no Pandemic.