You Got So Much Bling-Bling?

A very belated Happy Diwali to one and all. Let the festive season bring you all the joys, prosperity and the sanity you’ve ever wanted. Hope you’ve had a great ‘blast’. Enjoyed the fireworks? I saw one of the most stunning displays of firepower (fireworks!!)  this Diwali. Although it was one HELL of a sight for nothing more than 10 seconds, the repercussions are long standing.

If you’re capable of making so much money that you can simply burn a lot away for a festival, you should also be sane enough not to do so! If you really do, how about putting some of that to better use? I mean instead of just pointlessly burning them away and exposing yourself to the real danger of getting hurt, become an angel investor or feed the hungry and what not! If you’re willing to give, there would never be a dearth of places which could actually make use of the money!

What About All the Smoke, Noise and Debris?

One compelling reason for me to stay away and watch the celebrations from a distance would be all the smoke and noise. But, of course, with the Indian fireworks, you never know when a rocket is homing into the balcony where you thought you would be at peace and if it goes off there, then it’s a rest in peace! Jokes apart, the amount of smoke generated would easily put the winter fogs at the coldest of the places, to shame! Most of the pictures shot on the point and shoot cameras were too bright as the flash bounced off the smoke. That’s what we breathe for the next couple of  days or a week and we blame the smokers (that ciggie’s gonna kill you, sonnie!).

The noise wasn’t THAT bad. It was just that combat soldiers would have had it better with all the guns, sirens, artillery and the explosives going off right next to their ears. At one point, I thought I had indeed lost half my hearing power which was tack sharp till a few moments earlier. And the amount of dust and debris these things kick up is even more astonishing. If they all burn where do these come from!! Improper combustion (yeah, I like to assert a few of the engineering words I still seem to remember)!!

Is It WORTH The 10 seconds?

Firstly, I can’t believe that people would actually PAY a fortune to smell the toxic smoke, to buy stuff that actually explodes and kicks enough smoke to put an Iraqi IED to shame and above all for those 10 seconds! Secondly, I’ve never really understood the logic behind simply burning away money. And finally, if we continue to do this, I guess we better speed up our space expeditions and also start producing machines like Wall-E to clean up our Diwali celebrations debris.