A pause at Green

The festival of lights just got over for the year and it’s time for the real celebration - A celebration of the return to normalcy. Yes, we don’t have to pretend that we care for our environment anymore, we don’t have to pretend that we don’t like to blow our money and let it go up in smoke , we don’t have to pretend that we truly care for all those kids that are employed to make these crackers, we don’t have to pretend that we care for all those annoying pigeons and barking street dogs. We certainly can be ourselves at least, until the next Diwali. It’s time to celebrate this freedom from the self-woven shackles.

Most of us resolved to “Go Green” and celebrate a noise free, pollution free Diwali.  It was not just the ‘one night stands’ affair with our environment that sky rocketed during Diwali, our love for fellow humans flashed brighter than the brightest of flower pots. Every greeting was suffixed by “Be Safe”. Suddenly we started caring for the safety of fellow humans. Maybe the Good finally overcame the Evil.

Many of us, (the less excited ones) could actually sleep way past sunrise on the Diwali day and not be jolted out of the bed at 3 am by a nuclear bomb, as was the usual culture. I could drive or walk on the roads without having to fear a cracker bursting under the legs or tire. God Bless the ‘Go Greeners’

I almost gave my thumbs-up to this ‘Go Green’ culture and to our new found maturity until I saw a group of kids in my apartment lobby playing with one of those fancy electronic gadgets. I almost screamed, Really? On Diwali day? Is that the best fun they could think of? As I was driving past the noiseless roads, I wondered. Has our new found maturity or care for our environment taken the fun out of this mother of all festivals? Didn’t we enjoy our childhood without a care for the environment? Didn’t we burst the noisiest of crackers without a care for safety? Didn’t we enjoy being the first one to burst the loudest cracker and wake the entire street up in the wee hours of the morning? Didn’t we blow our fathers money and enjoyed watching it go up in flames? We did. Could we have enjoyed this day and looked forward to it every year during our childhood, had our parents counted the money or took a moral high ground in support of the environment. Aren't we denying the kids their right to fun with this new found fashion statement – Go Green?

My head was bursting with the rights and wrongs of the changing culture until I was jolted back to my senses and reality with a loud honking noise from a car behind me. In my moral tussle, I failed to notice the signal Go Green.