Oct 17, 2009

Uh... Happy Diwali...


Hello Everybody,

It's been a while that I have been unable to write anything on my blog. Some call it writer's block, but I needed some time out before I could get back to expressing myself full throttle once again. I hope all of you caught up on a lot of other interesting stuff, which reminds me that I have to go through all the blogs that I follow!

Well, I was thinking of writing something on this blog for over a month, but I was not able to bridge the gap between thinking of writing and actually coming up with something. But this evening, I knew I HAD TO put this up here. Diwali is such a festival, it makes us do things in mysterious ways. Be it re-connecting with people you have been avoiding all year, or totally dumping the balanced diet program for a hearty portion of sweets. Be it meeting your relatives whom you hate from the core of your heart, or text a friend whom you have been maintaining constant distance from, for a long time. Diwali just serves as the perfect excuse.

For most of the people, this festival is all about shopping, and eating, and earning money from various sources, and shopping some more, and bursting crackers, and..... STOP. This is exactly what I want to talk about. Bursting crackers. I used to love bursting crackers as a teenaged girl. I was too scared of them before teenage and once I got the hang of it then there was no stopping me. I would burst all kinds of Rassi Bomb, Fuljhadi, Fountain, Parachute, Gol Chakri, Cylinders, and even those Snakes. I used to light those red crackers up and throw them in the air. What a dare devil!

This year I'm just not feeling the Diwali spirit. For one thing, and the most important one at that, I did not shop for even a single item this Diwali. I did not make a Rangoli, and I was literally man handled so that I would help Mom make sweets this season. But that has more to do with the changes I'm going through from within. I was walking on my building terrace this evening, and I was not listening to music while walking today which forced me to take a look around and notice people bursting crackers. Now they were bursting crackers on the ground floor, which means when they all went up and made all kinds of shapes and patterns, they were about where I was walking - on the 8th floor. Everytime a Cylinder or a Rocket or a Parachute went up, I could see a small black cloud of smoke in the air. I am not even going to the noise department in this post. The bigger the explosion, the bigger the cloud, and the smaller the explosion, the denser this cloud.

I noticed 10 such explosions per minute. This was just in my area. I'm too horrified to imagine how much the number is in my locality, or my city, or my state, and my country. I felt too dizzy and nauseatic in a mere 45 minutes and returned home early today when after Laxmi Poojan my parents forced me to light up a Fuljhadi to "celebrate" Diwali spirit. I was forced to create another cloud of smoke. Don't know what to do... I guess it's just a part of the change I'm going through.

More on that in my next post.

... Uh.. By the way... Happy Diwali to all!