We all love to enjoy ourselves, don't we? But what if our enjoyment causes harm to someone else? Shouldn't we give others' happiness a thought as well?
When we ask these questions to ourselves, we might think of a number of incidents that we've witnessed. But this would be most unlikely to be the first or second one, even though this is not only affecting us but nearly all of our country every year: the festival of Diwali.
This article, though, is not about being against a festival. It's about the celebration of the festival. In my opinion, we should first try to understand why we do certain things and then talk about how those things have recently had an impact on us.
Most of us probably know that Diwali is a festival of lights. Light comes from diyas. No, sorry. Firecrackers. But generally, we fail to notice something important here. Here’s what Wikipedia say about the festival Diwali:-
Diwali symbolizes "victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance".
The first two are really common. But no one remembers the last one. (Probably that's a reason why we don't consider the first two either.) Of course, I'm talking about pollution. But even technically, a diya's light lasts much longer than a firecracker's.
But what do firecrackers do, anyway? Cause air pollution? Burn houses? And suppose a park got burnt? We should be aware of the fact that a small park can end up burning a whole region.
And who checks how many calls the fire department gets every Diwali? More than a hundred and fifty calls this year. But air pollution seems like a small problem, doesn't it? Our readers might want to check this small list of what air pollution does, especially to children:-
Makes it difficult for them to breathe
Can cause attacks in patients of asthma and other respiratory diseases
Can cause eyes to burn
Might cause cancer even in young-age children
Might affect them with pneumonia
Affects their blood vessels
Children might get black deposits on their lungs (even without having done any smoking!)
And of course, it causes global warming, which is extremely serious. But that is not all air pollution does. Several studies have shown that air pollution is related to the spread of COVID-19. Here is a little more about what firecrackers do:-
You know about smog already. Every Diwali, the pollution levels go up more than 30% and that is just because of firecrackers, which we burst on only one day in the year. Just think about someone planning to have this kind of fun on other occasions as well.
I've already talked about fire accidents. And a hundred and fifty is too many calls for the fire fighters! The Fire Service Department has literally started keeping 2800 staff at work on Diwali along with over 200 fire engines which is still apart from 30 fire units deployed all around the national capital! And just imagine– that's all just for Delhi; the rest of the country is not even mentioned here yet.
A fact that I would like to let you think about here is that firecrackers not only pollute the air but also the land.
Hundreds of thousands of children work in firework factories and risk their lives every year. Another common story. But it's about how seriously we take it. These children risk their lives and sometimes, even worse, they face horrible accidents that leave them crippled for all their lives.
Second last question: do you know how many asthma patients exist in India? At least one in every 10 asthma patients existing in the world is living in India.
Final (set of) question(s): do you have pets or are fond of animals or at least care for the life of an animal? If you say 'yes' for any of these, here's a suggestion: please be aware of the fact that animals are not as big fans of firecrackers as you are. And there isn't an animal that I know of that really loves the sound of a cute, little firecracker.
Air pollution affects our lungs. And COVID-19 attacks our lungs. Furthermore, air pollution ultimately lowers our immunity, which is very dangerous if you think COVID-19 is dangerous.
Lastly, to clear a misconception, green crackers, also known as "eco-friendly" crackers are neither green nor eco-friendly. They're only a tiny bit less polluting than other sorts of crackers, which is NOT helpful. It will still increase pollution levels and still choke people who breathe in the "fresh smoke".