The Way it is Meant to Be..

Over the years and decades, Diwali has become a very behemothic festival of our country. However, over the time ways and perspectives of people have changed. It has become more of a shopping oriented festival and the celebrations have become subdued and understated. Not that it is bad, of course, it is always good when businesses flourish in a country, but the allurement and charm of the celebrations have dwindled. Why is that so? Of course, now people are more "eco friendly" and they decide to celebrate a "cracker free" diwali. But mind you, these are the same environment loving people, who otherwise will use elevators for even a single floor, never use a public transport or their feet to go to closer areas, will never care to plant a single tree, will throw trash on road and spit on walls, use plastic with pride and obstinately, and never care to turn off an electric appliance that is not in use!

Obviously I will give one disclaimer here - Not that I support pollution or I hate environment friendliness, this post just highlights my personal thoughts. But just to look "cool" or just because we want to go with the flow, it is really not in the right spirit to abate the delight and beauty of a festival, which since centuries, has been the pride of our culture. What would it look like to see up in the sky on a Diwali night and not find a single colour up there? Let us preserve the charm of a festival that is celebrated by crores of people across the world. We can do all the things listed above all round the year too, to make this world a better place! And above all, if we keep in mind the legal decibels of noise, we can definitely make crackers a better experience for everyone! After all, just because mobiles have  now become a cause of road accidents, it does not mean, we stop using them altogether!

What I am trying to do here is preserve the culture of fire crackers of this beautiful and colourful festival which offers something for all age groups. Personally, I am in love with this festival for everything about it. After everything is over, and I stand quietly in the balcony at 1 a.m. and look around, I find my face reflecting the brightness of the lights around me, which makes me ecstatic, a distant sound of crackers delight me, and suddenly, a beautiful firework far away in the sky enlightens me. There is that pungent and acrid smell of explosives in the air. I see the left overs of the crackers on the road, and I imagine those cheerful kids who must have had the time of their life bursting them. A Few last diyas are still spreading light in dark corners of the world as the most amazing festival of Diwali attempts to spread the strong message of good over evil and happiness among one and all.

I wish everyone an awesome week and a great holiday season! Let us celebrate the way it is meant to be! :)