Crackers, Cars and Celebrations ……

Bijili -  3 packets, Flower Pot – 1 , Parachute Rocket – 1 Box, Vishnu Chakra – 1 Box, Train – 1 , Lakshmi – 3 packets…………… the list goes on.

What is this list? This use to be prepared by me, during my school days, weeks before Deepavali. In other words, it was my demand list for the festival. I am sure, this was not only my nostalgic, but every kid of that age in those days used to do this.

This was not only about bursting crackers, it was celebrations, fun, get together with family and friends.

Infact, every Indian Festival, irrespective of religion, region, and languages – it has that basic essences which is required for human beings – care, fun, nature, family, friends, light, colour, water, culture, dance , songs etc. along with spirituality which is essential to keep the body and mind in good shape.

We in India celebrated every festival for thousands of years. We are known for it across the world. Every festivities feels like entire society is gearing up, irrespective of their connection with that particular festival.

 

Fast Forward – After Twenty years….

In recent years, suddenly there is inflow of messages in smart phones & Medias, on how every festival which was celebrated for centuries is creating pollution and endangering humans.  How water, air is getting destroyed by us in name of festivities. Take pledge and make children to take pledges, create awareness ….…..

Is it not irony that, most of these messages are created by same people, who were celebrating it when they were kids?! . When they wanted to enjoy they did so and now for the next generation they are preaching not to do so.

Well, if bursting crackers is worrying them, what measures they have taken to reduce air pollution caused by thousands of cars driven every day for commuting to office.  Is it not true, we see every day that most of this cars are single driven.

The major cause of air pollution this days is burning of fossil fuels, especially in Metros. It is also leading to huge traffic jams.  Hours together we sit in car, switch on AC, and curse the system but we don’t realise we are polluting air that time.

How many households have installed rain water harvesting to improve the water table, even after repeated appeal by various authorities? How many of us have seen lakes being destroyed by encroachers and keep our eyes closed.

Is it not we who cut down the trees in front of our sites, because it will spoil the look of the building?

Come to Bengaluru, we have public transport like BMTC, Metro, Taxis, Local Trains , car pool apps etc. in addition, many of the companies are giving cab services to its employees . How many of us make use of it?

If people are so much concerned about Deepavali pollution of three days , appreciated, however, it will be much better if they start using above system and protect world from pollution, traffic jams which will also save time , money and valuable foreign exchange to India ( by reducing fuel imports). There is one saying – the richness of a country is not measured by number of people travel by car, but how many use public transport.

In foreign countries when they do a massive firework show, we enjoy it in forwarded WhatsApp video, appreciate their enthusiasm in doing it, dreamt of going there one day, meanwhile back at home,  when an entire country of billion people gears up for such celebrations, criticisms will start to flow.

Well, this article is not about criticising the concerns people have about world, but also to highlight the hypocrisy we have in society where we don’t do - walk the talk.

Let us stop looking everything in lenses of negativity. We are having a rich heritage of celebration, let us continue it. Otherwise after few years, we will be celebrating everything in smart phones, a device which connects mobile numbers but not hearts and souls.

It may also happen one day, we will tell children – Once up on a time, in India we celebrated Deepavali... Festival of Light... We celebrated Holi... Festival of Colours which we stopped due to……….