UNFORTUNATE CHILDREN

Diwali the festival of lights has just gone by leaving in its wake some pleasant thoughts and some disturbing ones as well. The call given by the state to restrict the decibels level of fire crackers to 125 or so, seems to have a positive impact this year on our city and probably elsewhere. The impact of high decibels sound on our ear drums due to bursting of firecrackers had eased a bit and hopefully the poor animals and pets around us with significantly higher power of hearing than human beings got some relief too. It is heartening that efforts are being made to produce only environment friendly green crackers these days which are supposed to be free from harmful chemicals and cause less air pollution. ////////. Retirees and senior citizens love the festival of lights as much as kids do and take the liberty of eating delectable Diwali sweets to the extent their health permits and a little extra too for celebrating the special occasion. They revel in the beauty of colourful Rangoli designs near the entryway of homes created by the artistically inclined womenfolk and feel happy that beautiful earthen lamps or sakis have made a comeback to the homes of many. Sakis were widely used in earlier times but got side-lined later by bright electrical lamps preferred for their ease of use. However, the more aesthetically pleasing traditional sakis produced by simple village artisans are once again gaining ground and thankfully so. These days we also find very heart-warming videos making the rounds in social media particularly during the festive season exhorting consumers to buy things like sakis or diyas and other festival accessories from the simple village folks displaying their wares on the street rather than from big departmental stores. ////////. One of the disturbing thoughts though, that may come to our minds is the colossal waste of energy and money in celebrating Diwali, the festival of lights. There are people who seem to be have no anguish in gambling away lots of money or in indulging in rich food and beverages including expensive alcoholic drinks during the festive season. Billions of rupees get burned just like firecrackers consecutively for two or three nights with a lot of merry making, even when we have millions of impoverished people unable to light a single festive candle in their homes. We feel guilty when we recall the experiences of witnessing poor people in railway stations grabbing half eaten food thrown out from the railway coaches or the rag pickers, mostly destitute women and children, trying to salvage something out of the waste we dump in our municipal bins. //////////// Early in the morning, the day after Diwali, I happened to see a few rag pickers - all small children rummaging through the debris from the crackers/fireworks of the previous night scattered all over in front of our apartment building. I was curious and watched these kids for some time from my third floor balcony wondering what type of valuables they were expecting to find in all these waste materials. I didn't have to wait very long. A young boy hardly 8 to 9 years of age finally located a small un-lit firecracker and tried to light it with a match several times but failed each time as the un-lit cracker was damp with moisture. He eventually ran out of match sticks and decided to leave the place completely dejected and probably frustrated with life which denied him the simple pleasure of bursting a cracker this Diwali.