My book of rants

Diwali firecrackers: BE SAFE

So firstly, wish all of my Indian folks a HAPPY DIWALI!!!!       I love this festival. It is the festival of lights and celebrates the return of lord Rama (for further info, Google it!).

We do a lot of things in Diwali, it is celebrated in different forms across India, in some regions it lasts for a day or two and for some a week. There are have two things in common all across India. 1) Lights- we light Diyas everywhere in our house, decorate our balcony with bright lights. We also pray for a better year (its also the Hindu new year), 2) Fireworks/firecrackers…. Now here firecrackers come in a WIDE range. I swear, there are loud bombs o these fireworks called butterfly which gives out a loud screechy noise and flies around… which is scary because there are fireballs going around everywhere. Then there are those, which you find everywhere. The ones that go up in the sky and blow up in different colours. (Microsoft!!!! Colours is spelt C-O-L-O-U-R-S PLEASE do not correct my spellings. I know the American version is different but I speak brit Eng.)!!! I could go on and on about these firecrackers. So lets stop and get the point where I start whining.

      FIREWORKS/FIRECRACKERS

Everyone loves a big boom. Don’t lie. You live in Hollywood and Bollywood era. Everyone loves firecrackers. I personally do to, but after knowing what kind of incidents took place, I stopped 2 years ago.

So the first incident that took place was about 3 years ago when my friend lit a rocket (it’s a firework that goes up. Doesn’t explode that heavily). I just saw. When the rocket went up, it went into my neighbor’s house and went off. My neighbor seemed pretty upset… it was scary.

The second incident was when I was young; I had lit this fountain (one that is very bright and doesn’t give out much noise but a lot of S02) it didn’t light. So I went closer, to light is again and right that moment, the firecracker went off. Thankfully, I backed out and escaped with a small burn. But I still cant imagine how it would have been if I hadn’t stepped back on time.

The third one was crazy. There was a crazy guy, call him X, who lived in my building. Now X wanted to show off to his friends how ‘cool’ he was. So that Diwali night, he took the big firecrackers (the one that is on 4 July) and inverted it!!!!!! I was sitting a little away. I didn’t notice it was inverted. the firecracker was huge. The X lit it and ran.  Just a second before going off I realized it was inverted. I hid behind the tree. The firecracker went crazy. It started rolling away in high speed giving out a lot of flame. Then, to my horror it burst near my foot.

Now everyone knows the biggest con. Pollution. Even the smallest firecracker emits so much pollution. Two days before, I could see bright lights everywhere. But now, it is very hazy and all I see is black. Walking on the road, the air is choking and not so pleasant to breathe. This is unhealthy.

And lastly, the most bizarre incident. I have a dog. These extremely loud firecrackers can harm a dogs hearing. Dogs hear much better than us, so if something is loud to us, guess what it would be to them. My dog spent his afternoon under the table, whimpering. He was shit scared. I mean, when I was taking him for a walk, this dude lit one of the loudest firecrackers near him. I jumped up at the noise. My dog started barking. I gave that guy a piece of my mind.

Guys please, a message to all Indians. Both Desi and NRI, PLEASE AVOID FIRECRACKERS. Don’t burst them. Right now I am hearing loud booming. My dog is still whimpering and the air is choking. Guys seriously. Stop.

Once again. Have a safe Diwali.

Manav