Diwali.. the festival of lights… says who?

All along while we were growing up, we were taught that Diwali is a festival to celebrate the homecoming of Lord Ram after 14 years of his exile in the forests. It is celebrated by lighting rows of lamps(hence deepa-wali… get it??) to welcome him. Nice excuse to clean up your homes and hog all that delicious eatery being made actually.

But I feel that over the years, Diwali has lost that meaning of being a festival of lights. The whole country looks very much lighted up allright, but the emphasis is more on the sound part of it. Everybody wants to make as much noise as possible.. and in the process you end up polluting the air and create one helluva racket.

What many dont understand is that this sound troubles animals, new born babies, the oldies and everyone in between who isnt so hell bent on bursting crackers. Pray, what fun does one derive from blowing up their own hard earned money in plumes of smoke? That lousy smell of gun-powder fills up the air as though it was some battle field. It is very nauseating and can irritate the best of people with huge amounts of patience.

I just dont understand why we Indians have to be so noisy to celebrate any festival, not just Diwali. Is there just no way we can celebrate our rituals without making noise? Why has it become so necessary to set up huge loudspeakers in every lane and blast off stupid and senseless Bollywood songs, or in this case burst crackers way past the 10 pm deadline?

You might allege that I am being supremely cynical and not looking at the brighter side of things. Sorry, I cant see anything bright about waves and waves of 120+decibel noise. And there’s no running away from it.

I hope the smarter ones reading this blog post educate the people around them and drive some sense in the brains of the young and gullible to tell them that what they are doing is thoroughly wrong. We deserve to live in a quiet and non-polluted surrounding.

Happy Diwali and Eid to all reading this. Enjoy your holidays. Metal prevails.

P.S. One bright side actually, Iron Maiden are coming to India. MMRDA grounds, BKC Feb 1. Whoopeee!! And they’ll be playing songs from Powerslave and Somewhere in Time. Metalheads, see you there.