Fire Crackers and Diwali

Diwali, the festival of light, sound, fun and pollution!!

When I was a small kid, not very small, I was very fascinated by crackers. Not to mention the huge deal of money my dad used to spend, in buying crackers. Bursting Crackers was the ultimate thing for me and my dad too (strangely enough).

Three years back, my father crossed all limits, he brought 20, 10,000 lars wala crackers (for those who didnt understand what that is, 10,000 lars means, a pack where 10,000 crackers are tied together and when lit start bursting one by one in a row, hope that explains, and my father brought 20 such packs). After bursting about 4 to 5 of them, I got bored big time. At that moment, I felt as if I was wasting money, each cracker that bursted, was like a 100Rs note burning in the air, everytime i heard the noise, I felt like a whip being lashed on my fathers back (yeah seriously i imagined that way). I dunno from where all those thoughts came into my mind. My father's friends who were helping us burst those crackers, did something, I for the rest of my life would never forget in the entire life of mine, for that matter of fact, everyone who was present to witness that event would never forget it either.

We had 10 - 11 bundles left, and it was getting really late, so these intelligent friends of my father's lined up all the remaining lars one behind the other, making this chain of crackers the longest i have ever seen in my life. I dont know the distance till which this went, but believe me when i say, it was insane!! I was like those Anacondas they show on the Discovery Channel, actually it was more like hundreds of them lined one behind the other. Also to increase the effect of the explosion, we placed several " Rassi Bombs ". These are small single crackers which make a terribly loud noise when they burst.

Then with everything in place, I was asked to light one end of the cracker, and was asked to run away from it as far as possible. I wasnt as dangerous as it sounds but then, you never know. I then lit one end, and it took a little time to light the nearest cracker, by that time I ran and stood near my mom. Then it started, it bursted and it bursted and it bursted .......... for a longggg time. I wanted it to stop, my ears wanted it to stop, my head wanted it to stop, everything inside me wanted it to stop, but no, it didnt. I went on and on and on, like one of those Duracell Commercial Bunnies. I bursted for 10 mins, can you imagine??? 10 mins of air and sound pollution. Everyone present over there were asking each other "Yeah aaj khatam hogaa naa ?? ki kal subah tak phut te rahegaa??" which was an obvious overstatement.

Atlast at the end of 10 minutes, it stopped, the silence after that was so soothing, that i wanted to just close my eyes and go to sleep or something like that. My ears were temporarily deaf, I couldnt hear what people were saying, and it was the case with others too, they couldnt hear what i was saying either.

After that event, I never brought crackers for more than 100Rs, that too because my grandmother insists me to burst something or the other. This year, I didnt bring even a Rupee worth of crackers. And I hope you dont burst much of them either.

Wish you all a very Happy Diwali and a Prosperous New Year.