[headbanger]

We used to burn crackers as a shagun in yesteryears. The quantity of crackers being consumed was far less those days. Limited finance also was a deterrent.

But with emerging middle class and bigger wallets, I observe that the overall quantity of crackers being burst has increased manifolds.

The joy of crackers is something I connect to, but like everything else for consumption, there has to be some regulation.

[harishpr]

Originally Posted by Geta

Sad to say this, but I will tell you what will happen over the next 30 years.

Now: Don't burst crackers, light a diya instead
After 10 years: Just light 'one' diya, save the environment
After 20 years: Light a candle, diya is old fashioned.
After 30 years: ....... you know it.

The more you yield, the more you will be expected to yield. Resist it the first time, and every single time.

I want my children to feel excited and have happy memories of celebrating my favourite religious festival which I would love them to pass on to their children and on. I am willing to cycle to work for the next 1 month to do my part to bring down the pollution but wouldn't want to compromise on the firecrackers. Ever.

Children don't get excited to light a diya. Sweets, they get to eat through out the year these days. Only firecrackers excite them and precisely for this reason firecrackers are getting targetted.

When you kill the excitement for a festival in children, you kill the festival for the next generation.

I believe in the same thought process. I’m 39 now, and have 2 kids under 10 years age. I stopped burning crackers in my early 20s and restarted since 2018. Call it lockdown effect or whatever, I bought a large cart of crackers this year and my kids absolutely loved them. Be it the colorful flowerpots or rockets or high decibel atom-bomb, their adrenaline was running high.
I want my kids to know and experience what I did in their age during Diwali, or Holi or Christmas.
Im doing my bit in reducing the carbon footprint in my own way (ex: consuming food produced/grown locally, cycling 2 times a week to work, etc) and don’t prefer to forego crackers during Diwali in exchange.
If my kids decide not to burn crackers in future, I will happily support their decision and light Diyas with them.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Look guys, I don't want to get too personal, but please say I'm going to do it because I'm going to do it! So many of the arguments are just justifications, or even excuses. Facile and transparent. I'm going to do it because people say I can't is... Childish.

Because you enjoy it --- is, at least, a reasonable reason. People may be able to reply that it isn't, in the scheme of things, a good idea, but nobody can argue against I enjoy it.

Because you want your children to enjoy? Your children will enjoy whatever you encourage them to enjoy. And frankly, fireworks are fun, so except for the few that dislike them on sight, you are onto a good bet that they will.

We don't and never will, have down-votes. This is one big down votes to quite a few of the posts here. It is not so much because you guys are going to (did) have crackers, but the so-called-reasoning behind that.

To those who just said, "I love crackers: going to do it." No down vote. I may not agree with you, but at least you were straightforward

That's it for this year. See y'all here next year. Or maybe on the manja thread*

Regardless, I wish you all a (belated) Very happy Diwali or even Deepavali. It is my favourite festival, because, whatever we do or don't believe, let there be more light in the world.



*No pun intended. Really!

[deathwalkr]

As a kid, i used to relish the opportunity to burst crackers. We were a rowdy bunch of neighborhood kids and i remember us tying 2 or 3 atom bombs (the green threaded ones) and setting them off.

Our cracker exploits used to be in an empty plot of land far away from the madding crowd.

For some reason, someone told me to try lighting up a flowerpot which was laid down on it's side and like a dumb kid i did, and whoosh, all those bright lights flowered onto my face.

Could not see anything but sparks for a few minutes but i guess some one was watching over me and thankfully nothing happened. The older dude was more worried and kept asking me not to tell his parents

But as age progressed that desire has long burnt out and now my son is happy with lighting a few sparklers.

Deepavali: Festival where we light deepams (lamps). Now i guess it's only done for Karthikai festival.

I am appalled at the religious angle in a few comments here and i wish we could look at it objectively.

Kerala does not have a big cracker celebration like other states, so i guess we should be thankful?!

[Gaur]

As a kid the cracker bursting event for us would last atleast 3-4 days this was 15-20 yrs back.

Gradually bursting crackers became a formality limited to just 1 day and the quantity too reduced significantly, nothing to do with pollution though.

This year after a long time I revisited my childhood Diwali thanks to my kids, practically their first diwali, limited the crackers to light only, a practice which I believe will continue for few more years atleast.

Its was also a gentle pushback against what i believe is a propaganda against the festival and beliefs of a majority of people.

B.t.w we had pets at our home since the time it wasn't fashionable to have one , yes they do get a bit puzzled by the noise but nothing that can't be managed.

On the other hand had a thought, we have 2 vehicles don't know what pollutes more the vehicles or a day of celebration.

[AnandB]

Originally Posted by Gaur

On the other hand had a thought, we have 2 vehicles don't know what pollutes more the vehicles or a day of celebration.

That's not the right metric to compare. It should be PPS/PPH (pollution per second/hour)

[ankitsharma]

Yes I did. I contributed to the pollution.

After not burning any crackers at all for the last 17 years I got them last year. This was more to explore the green fun but I got nothing green. Last year did not burn much as there was policing in our area.

[Rajiv0909]

Nature has its own ways to tackle things, at the peak of the Diwali night, it started raining in Pune, I learnt that it rained in Bangalore as well.

I don’t know what it did to the AQI but to me it was a sign that said, keep your trash to yourself, don’t send it up here

How did I celebrate my Diwali? No Chinese or Indian LEDs albeit a few more diyas to pray for those who confused the Festival of Lights with that of noise

[warrioraks]

I don’t buy crackers anymore. Lost interest many years back. Don’t even go to the terrace for seeing fireworks.

However I do get that a lot of people love crackers and have a fun time with family playing with all sorts of light and sound paraphernalia. That sounds reasonable to me even when though it is conflicting with the decision of honourable courts sometimes.

I am also able to understand people who refrain from engaging with crackers due to environment or other reasons.

What I am unable to comprehend is people bursting crackers to fight back in the name of preserving our culture. That is really

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Rajiv0909

How did I celebrate my Diwali? No Chinese or Indian LEDs ...

Actually, we put out 60 metres of LED strip in our garden, plus a couple of serial streamers. It's bright as day out there. Pink day!

Ridiculous for such a tiny house in a lane but hey, it was our way of doing it this year. And will be used for coming chistmas and pongal festivals, etc etc etc. I have to admit that I do enjoy lighting up, in this sense. I don't have any belief in christmas, and don't celbrate it in any other way --- but always loved the lights. So I'll join in that.

[gauravanekar]

My 2 cents:

Point 1: When it comes to religious/cultural/politically polarised topics no one has ever convinced anyone who believes the opposite side, thus it is high time to close this thread.

Point 2: there are two different set of people who are discussing the same thing here, people who have seen NCR during winter months and people who haven’t. Diwali pollution (even the worst of it) is nothing in front of what happens to NCR ( throughout the winter),”. I believe we’ve to make distinction between the opinions arising out of these two groups.

Point 3: If the topic of contention is environmental degradation on a long term basis globally, it is evident for any sane person that a week of Diwali celebration in India is negligible in the sea of pollution caused all over the world throughout the year.

Point 4: If the topic of contention is localised air pollution due to harmful oxidants like Nitrous, sulphurous etc, then I believe there is merit to cause worry but then again no one has some concrete data on the same.

Point 5: If the topic of contention is localised air pollution due to PM particles like 2.5 or smaller size, again the data is clear that coal, pre-BSIV diesels, dust and mainly stubble burning is the main cause. I understand that any and every source of pollution should be discouraged, just because someone is burning stubble it does not give anyone moral authority to burn crackers. However , the hypocrisy of the preaching public is that I’ve not seen the same people talking against Diesel “REMAPS”, “CAT-DELETE”, annadaata’s right to burn the stubble, “I’m a petrolhead, the noise, the vibration is irreplaceable, EV is not for me” or “After emission recall, I avoided software update” crowd.

Point 6:
Why did most of the cigarette smokers started smoking when they were young? Who do informed/educated people buy so much clothes(one for each occasion) and hoard when it is not at all a need? (it’s a huge environment disaster as well)
Answer for both is that it is seen as something cool or socially acceptable, anyone not found doing the same is seen as uncool or uncouth. Now the same social pressure is being built among the youth by the celebrities to not burst crackers during Diwali, that’s the whole point of celebrity sermons. Peer pressure is a powerful tool indeed.
The one question to these PETA warriors is where were you during other festivals?

[Mach_1590]

I didn't burst any crackers in Diwali due to work commitments. I am not against burning crackers. Fireworks is just one of the million ways to harm the environment. Common people are very easy to target to set an agenda.

Government is "worried" about the emissions sure, truth be told, a developing country will pollute the environment no matter what. I have been to steel factories, some very large units, the inspectors who are supposed to keep the emissions of such units in check, are mostly corrupt and they are getting their "chai-pani".

The thing is, the west got industrialized when we were serving the British, now that the west in industrialized, they want the clean air. This environment thing is really messed up and politicized. Things like festivals, religion etc are tools of the government/politicians to control the masses.

A "green and clean" country like Norway sells crude oil to China and India because of the "demand". We know that fossil fuel are the root cause of air pollution, still even the highly developed ones are producing it. Why? What is the point of your 60% electric car market when you are producing thousands of barrels of crude oil everyday?

My conclusion is, you need stop doing a lot of things to control this environmental pollution. And that, isn't gonna happen.

[Kapany]

No crackers for us. As a kid, like many of you, Diwali was incomplete without crackers. In fact we used to get them wholesale from nearby Ambala and have a competition with our neighbour on who could burst crackers all night. However it’s been more than fifteen years since I burst crackers. Hated seeing our dog whimpering under the bed and after a point the whole exercise seemed very childish. Now I happily light Diyas. I love the Festival of Lights. The festival of noise, not so much.

[Amrik Singh]

I wish good health to all and their family members !!!
But for a moment imagine a family member suffering from Asthma - Would you like to share the smoke around his room ?
A few years ago, I escaped to Lansdown to enjoy calmness and fresh air during Diwali. I met a family with small kid who was prone to Asthma. His parents told me that they have to escape to hills EVERY YEAR for the sake of their kid.
Rise above Religion and Politics, from oppressed majority to open hearted society. Even if Fireworks makes just one contribution to the pollution, it is in your hands to hold it.

[ohaak]

There is significant advancement with green crackers in lowering pollution. More scientific research into this area will yield better results for everyone. Yes there is pollution and it can be made better.

I celebrate Diwali with crackers and involve kids from some neighbourhood shacks in doing so. They enjoy it a lot and that smile is contagious.

The quantity of crackers has come down significantly over the years though.