Choose Silence, Choose Life
It is only one earth and one environment, that we share amongst different regions and different generation as well. So, we need to be appreciative, thankful to our mother earth and restrain from all those indulgence that increases HER vulnerability.
“The festival of liberation, wisdom and happiness, how can be synonym with adding to the air pollution and noise pollution?” A question asked by Rohit in a frantic and frenzy voice to his ever-maintaining cool friend Akash, who is on a spree to collect loads of fire crackers of high decibel sounds with the Diwali money he has received from his relatives.
“Oh Dear! This is part of our culture and we need to celebrate. Otherwise, how is it going to survive the test of time? So don’t worry, for the sake of cultural practices, we are bursting the fire crackers, nothing more than that.”
“Okay! If it is part of our cultural celebration, were your father, grandfather and great grandfather were bursting crackers in their childhood days?”
Akash paused for few seconds, switched on to thinking mode, then replied “Father, to some extent had few opportunities in his college days, but not grandfather and great grandfather. They had not tasted the pleasure of bursting crackers in their adolescence period. Probably they were living in rural areas, away from the market place, so they had no access to the fire crackers.”
“Exactly! Had this been in our culture and tradition then our forefathers would have practised it! Presence or absence of market couldn’t have deterred them in celebrating cultural manifestation. On the contrary, this whole aspect of bursting fire crackers by masses is a gimmick of market, which is giving direct jolt to the environment, creating shocking terror among speechless animals and is fuelling the global warming process!”
This logic even though sound convincing but for Akash it was annoying. Accepting this argument would require him to give up the idea of bursting crackers in Diwali, an act that he was not ready to give up so easily! The result was he wanted to prove himself right by providing counter arguments in an irked voice.
In a disgruntled voice Akash said, “What do you mean? Diwali is the time of fire crackers. In earlier days the kings and temple administration were arranging the fire cracker show during celebration of important festivals like Diwali and this practice has been going on since couple of centuries in many temples. How could you say that bursting of fire crackers is a manufacturing of market and a recent phenomenon?”
“Yes! Very true, but those traditional celebration were happening in a few limited places across Indian sub-continent that you could count with your fingers. But now it is happening at the mass scale, across each street and each region. Especially the urban areas are in a spree to show off their fascination for this particular cultural manifestation that grossly impact the air quality index of the region, raising the risk of health hazard for all and aiding to the warming up of the atmosphere.”
Further to give strength to his arguments Rohit asked in a knowledgeable manner, “Do you know when this mass bursting of fire crackers on Diwali started in India?”
In a care-freeway, raising both the shoulders and the eyebrows as well, Akash said in a grunting voice, “I don’t know, no idea!”
“Yes! I knew, many people must not be having this knowledge, but the truth is this business picked up in India in the post-independence period and it grew in leap and bound in the post-liberalisation period with the growth of the economic prosperity of the locals. You see, The Nadar brothers who were originally interested in setting up a match box factory in Sivakasi in pre-independence period created the first organised fire work factory that grew in size in the post-independence of India. Setting up the organised factory made the combustible thing easily available in the market, created the demand for it that again matched by the supply. In a spiral progressive way, the fire work is now available with the masses which is creating a denting impact on the environment.”
In order to show more of his knowledge about the journey of fire crackers in India, Rohit went on taking class of Akash like a teacher- “This is the recent history of use of fire crackers in Diwali but if you march backward in history, you will notice that the fire work business was possible with the easy availability of gun powder in the mediaeval period with the Islamic conquerors of India. Prior to the use of gunpowder in fire work, I doubt there was any fire cracker existing or not? But my gut feeling says, certainly in the absence of gun powder, Diwali must have been celebrated with equal enthusiasm in the Indian subcontinent in pre-medieval period. So, if you analyse into the customs and rituals then you will definitely find that the Diwali was independent of fire crackers in earlier days and by not bursting the crackers you are not going to deviate from the cultural practice.”
“Yeah, yeah! I can understand, don’t show off your knowledge.”
“No dear! I am not showing off anything, I am only concerned about our environment and our future. We should not be doing anything that would raise the fragile condition of our environment. It is only one earth and one environment, that we share amongst different regions and different generation as well. So, we need to be appreciative, thankful to our mother earth and restrain from all those indulgence that increases HER vulnerability.”
“Okay! Okay! Now what will we do with this money, if not going to buy fire crackers, then how can we spend it?” asked by Akash in a resigned voice.
With a happy smile Rohit said, “we will find it.”
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