The entire country of India is getting ready to celebrate the festival of Deepavali/Diwali next week. It is one of the major festivals that is celebrated across the length and breadth of the nation. It is not without good reason that Deepavali/Diwali is called as the festival of light - there is a lot of light on this day. People compete with one another to burst more crackers, which emits a substantial amount of light.
And pollution. Both air pollution and noise pollution. I am not even talking about carbon emissions and wastage of money/resources.
I am not saying that bursting crackers is wrong (even though it is) and you should stop bursting crackers (even though that would be great).
I am just saying, don't cause so much pollution in the name of celebrating a festival. Did you know that you can opt for eco-friendly crackers or do meaningful things to celebrate Deepavali/Diwali?
Only if you demand eco-friendly crackers, shops will stock them and manufacturers will make them. As more people start demanding, their prices will also come down. So will pollution.
Celebration is great, but it should be at the cost of our health. It's easy to think that pollution will not affect you - and keep contributing to it - until one day you realize that substantial damage has already been done.
Or like me, you can decide to refrain from bursting crackers. I decided to stop bursting crackers 4 years back and have stuck to my decision ever since.
I hope my article will inspire at least one person to stop bursting crackers or buy less crackers, this year. When you start doing good things, people around you will get inspired to follow you.
Photo credit: By Ramesh NG (originally posted to Flickr as Chakra at Diwali) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
