Diwali Lights

Today is Diwali. It is the only festival which I 'celebrate' apart from Navratra. I have put quotes because notion of celebration varies to a great extent from person to person. It's not that I don't like other festivals. In fact I like Ganesha Chaturthi as much as Diwali but I feel more happy during Diwali. Perhaps, this is because of the weather at this time of the year. Latter part of October and early November are the best part of year for me. I like these two months very much, ostensibly because the chill in atmosphere is perfect to have a sound sleep. Morning sunlight appears to be bliss of God.

This Diwali is about to pass. The celebration was muted. Very few friends are here compared to last year. One of my friends dressed for the occasion reminding of the auspiciousness of the occasion. Some have preferred to celebrate Diwali at their respective homes which would have been usual course for me too had there been few more days off from regular schedule. As I write a lot of crackers are creating the din I hate most about this festival. Despite knowing the hazards these crackers pose to environment and to those who have respiratory problems, people continue to rejoice this way. All those laws about decibel levels and noise pollution seem to exist only in Uttar Pradesh pollution Control Board Advertisement which was published in today's newspaper. Some of these same guys (Yes I am referring to the IIT guys) will go and settle in West. There they will do all these things in a very controlled way (of course if they get any chance to do these things), but here it doesn't bothers them. Same thing is being done to Ganges. Under the garb of spirituality and tradition we keep on dumping our filth into Ganges. It is a travesty of sorts that we refer to Ganges as 'mother'. When I was kid environmental issues were choicest problem for essay writing on pressing issues. It seems in future they will be source of information for geologists working on ascertaining causes of disappearance of glacier fed rivers like Ganges.