Have a Safe Diwali

While Diwali is an occasion for praying, expressing love and greeting friends, we give expression to our festive spirit by lighting lamps, eating sweets, exchanging gifts and bursting crackers. The spirit of the “festival of lights” often however gets shrouded in the manner in which we celebrate it, and every year, this period of joy and gaiety turns into a nightmare for some.

Health and life come under considerable threat during Diwali: the air we breathe gets smoky and polluted with suspended particles and toxic fumes, triggering attacks of breathlessness and asthma. Crackers cause deafness, usually temporary but sometimes permanent, especially in children. The loud noise of crackers often triggers heart attacks in the elderly. Burns are common, claiming several lives and maiming many every year. Igniting of firecrackers releases fumes of cadmium, lead, copper and magnesium that cause a variety of problems from anemia to nervous ailments, making us feel tired and sleepless by late evening.  And remember that the crackers you buy and burn could be the spoils of child labour.

Gorging on sweets is a distinct Diwali health hazard. Sweets at home, sweets at any home you visit and boxes of sweets that come home as gifts. They are high in fats and sugars, make our weights and blood sugars soar, and thicken the arteries of our heart. Do we need to keep binging on them every year as tradition?

Consumerism reaches its peak this time every year. A plethora of glittering Items and goods are dispalyed on sale, and whether we need them or not, buy them we must! Jewellery, electronic items, cars, utensils, clothes, almost anything that we can splurge on seems justifiable at this time. We also spend good amounts of money beautifying and lighting up our homes and offices, to impress Godess Lakshmi who come visting. We consume large amounts of electricity and fuel, deprivng many of our less fortunate countrymen whose homes remain dark and cold.

While celebrating Diwali this year, try some of the following this year:

1.     Use diyas: they are truely traditional, aesthetic and bring home the true spirit of Diwali.

2.     Avoid crackers. If however you must, use them sparingly in open spaces and before 10 PM. Make sure you wear cotton and have a bucket of cold water nearby.

3.     Try eating and serving fruits or low calorie sweets rather than the rich commercial ones

4.     Curb your buying binge.

5.     Focus more on what Diwali is meant for: express love, greet friends and pray for peace.

6.     Try out a new way of being happy this year: the joy of GIVING. Visit a hospital, orphanage or a home for the challenged, with a few boxes of sweets or toys. See the way the faces of the sick or lonely light up with joy and gratitude. It might be the brightest light you can get yourself this Diwali. And this will certainly earn you bonus blessings from Goddess Lakshmi. Happy Diwali.

As published in HT City ( Hindustan  Times) dated 11 october , 2009.