Friday, October 31, 2008

Love and Hate

Crackers and me have been quite distant from each other for the past 6 years, reasons three :
1. A big 'green' activity group coming to school making us swear to god not to burst crackers ever again.
2. My newly acquired knowledge about the noise and smoke produced by the crackers.
3. (The one which 'might'(very slightly) have tilted the scales) They're scary!!

The small, green, innocent looking bundle of thread when set on fire makes such a big noise, you can never get used to it >.<. Especially not when the small-kid-next-door bursts right next to you when you are out on the day, though fully aware there are bound to be land-mines everywhere.
The reason that I am scared of them can be attributed to one primary incident, which happened around the same time when the above(more important) reasons started influencing my cracker bursting life.
That night, I took a normal, a 6-inch-long sparkler (better known as sur-sur-batti) to light up a 'pilley' flower pot. I lit it up using a candle, holding the flower pot on my left hand. Placing the flower-pot carefully on the freshly-tarred road, and bent to light it up. Small sparks oozed out of the flower pot as I touched its tip with the sur-sur-batti's dancing sparks. I ran back, to watch the flower pot show its majestic glory.
Nothing happened. The sparks went back to bed. Ayyo tuss pataki. Went close to check if the flame was off and to see if the pot was re-lightable, I bent down.

BANG!
The flower pot, which was supposed to emit colourful sparks so that the little children can clap, and the others would watch it in awe, that friggin conical piece of cardboard and paper and phosphorous and god-knows-what, exploded right on my face! Fortunately, no pieces of it came to me, and no lasting injury on me, unless you consider the sprouting of the seed of hatred for the crackers in me.
Ironically, crackers found their way to my home yet again this year, thanks to my cracker-enthusiast father :x
Crackers may have all their what-dyou-call-ems, negative points, but on the perfectly clear nights the Deepavali festival always promises, sitting on the balcony, watching people run when they light the crackers, smile when it explodes, watch in wonder when it shows its multi-coloured magnificence, the beauty of the pitch-black night sky when its lit up with green and yellow and red, carries you to a different world.

8 comments:

sudarshan said...

good one ...but listen nobody cares whether you like crackers or not ...kidding....on a serious note....i agree they are a menace these crackers ...as much as they add 'spark' to the festival of lights ....we would like to keep the festival of lights restricted to just that ...lights...pure 'diya' lights

Vinay Hegde said...

Hmmm... interesting... You never told me about this incident! :O Now I know that the order of all those reasons are messed up :P
Personal views differ. I feel they are OK if they are limited - a bunch of small shouts and a bunch of sparks. I agree that it should be more of a 'festival of lights' than otherwise :) and yeah, skies are just magnificent during Deepavali!
By the way, I too have stayed away from crackers for a long time now (only coaching my pilley cousins :P)

Chaitanya said...

I never told anyone, so I wrote it here now :)

Smart use of 'small shout' there :P

Mess-i-ah! said...

@chaiti-kudos.....
@sudi-thu ninnajji.sigodeilla bloody.
@vinay-agree but'd like to add...
You see those flowerpots(not the one that boomed onto chaitis face) and sudarshan(not this bugger) chakras. Those r funn.appear nice even to children. So allow those. As for the sparks in the sky,though beautiful, they are no match for the shining stars. Besides the rockets are never to be trusted. Rest all you can figure out from chaitis post.Cheers... Learn from him guys. Then can you enjoy the colorful festival of lights. Enjoy........ :D

Merin Mandanna said...

Again,same opinion. :)
Festival of lights,after all. Im completely anti-crackers too. What with the immense amounts of pollution they cause! And,well,Im not exactly very courageous either. :P

Nice post Chaitanya!:)

idream said...

i hope i'm not too late in commenting on this post(within a year innit...:P)....crackers like sparklers are ok....they dont cause damage......every year i sit down to draw rangoli on diwali eve the bombs see to it that i never manage to get a straight line in the first attempt!!! hate them!!Diyas are the actual meaning of diwali....love to see balconies and doorways lit with rows of diyas and lanterns....:)
havent burst a single cracker for the last two years.....had burnt my hand when a rocket touched it before going and setting a wedding mandap on fire...lol!!
very appropriate post..waiting for more:)

Kaushal said...

oh alright now i know why... its a good thing anyways... but i am thinkin that you r now refrainin yourself from crackers due to the first and second reason...right?

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