Enigma of Diwali

I love firecrackers, I hate noise, I hate smoke, but Diwali (Or Deepawali) brings all that together, the height of mixed emotions.

Being exposed to them from a very young age had made me love them, I eagerly waited for Diwali, for more firecrackers. But as the time passes and maturer we become, we began to notice changes, changes in behavior, changes in our actions and reactions, and changes in our perceptions. Earlier, on Diwali, I used to stand on my balcony and look at the sky, and enjoy the convergence of rockets from various directions. It was great, I began to dream, that all Diwalis are like that only. Convergence of thousand rockets. I hated bombs and other noisy crackers, making high pitched noises, but love softer ones. So I as a young boy I avoided walking in streets during the Diwali nights. But as time passed more I became used to it, but the fear still remained.

Few years back a new movement started, a movement to stop bursting crackers during Diwali. It was the direct outcome of the smog caused during the Diwali preceding the movement. Highly publicised, awareness campaigns were run by the government, telling people not to buy crackers. It could be seen everywhere, in school, colleges, Televisions, Radio, Print it seems that government was hellbent in closing the cracker industry in India. Cracker Industry too responded, saying imagine a Diwali without crackers. And the battle began and its on till now. Meanwhile the prices of the firecrackers escalated.

In this whole issue there were four things in question, first one based on which the movement began was public health. Second one is child labor involved in such industry. Third one is the loss of revenue and taxes to the government. And the fourth one is the unemployment to be caused by closing of such industry. The first question was answered by starting of the movement against the firecrackers. The second question was answered by impounding the companies violating the child labor regulations. The third question and fourth question was responded by not banning such industry.

But going through all that one may feel that in this whole issue there was dishonesty, on the part of government and on the part of the industry. If the government was soo concerened about the public health then why on the first go the industry was banned. If the industry is so honest, then why those firecrackers are still availble which flout both noise levels and pollution levels or why frequent raids reveal use of banned substances and child labor in their products. Today, everything is same, pollution is still there, so are the firecrackers and so is the movement.

Coming back to my expierences, I began to lose my fear of noisy cracker as I entered my later teens. Now, I was confidently able to fire rockets, skyshots and other such things. But I still feared bombs. But now on Diwali I havc began to feel different. The things which I used to enjoy, now they seem like a warzone with different weapons on. Its no fun to listen to such noises that, if used in its original occasion, might have killed someone. Using those flares as source of entertainment, which are used to signal if someone is in distress. Burning bombs with various noises, which if came from original source, might have killed someone. I do not enjoy them. But I still enjoy firecracker, why, because still it makes me feel more masculine, more brave, more courageous. But why I am suffering from this double opinion. Reason can be found in the middle paragraphs of this stupid article. The movement to ban was found on misfounded basis that the crackers are the only source of pollution. No, they are not. At one side we are having a heavy private vehicle population, development of newer industries and on other side we are comparing a festival which is being celibrated for not more than two days. How can it be the main reason for the problem of pollution. Agreed that it can be termed as a major cause of noise pollution, but still the regulations and rules are unable to stop this problem, instead, promoting imports of such problem(read Chinese crackers). But one day is not enough for the end of the world.

The feared person inside me, feared of terror, war, crime, hated the cracker. But my other self, supported it, but with changes. Duality is thus explained. This year too I had the feeling of fear, noises and rockets of war; But, I also saw the old scene, thousand rockets converging into one place.