Night of Diwali Blessing or a Curse?

This picture is clicked and edited on my mobile on the night of Diwali. The picture is looking good because it is looking balanced and well composed. Now let’s get back to the story behind the pic.

Diwali is a very big Hindu festival in India or I should say all around the World, it is a symbol of victory of good on evil and light on darkness. You can imagine its popularity by a simple thing that this year Diwali was even celebrated by UN (United Nations). I was happy with the symbolization of good on evil but this symbolization of light on darkness created lot of problem for me on the night of Diwali.

The process of Diwali celebration involves buying new clothes, feeling festive, sharing gifts, lighting your home & workplace and doing fireworks & burning crackers. All the other things are good enough and depend upon the individuals but the direct effects of burning fireworks is not restricted to individuals. I was just reading the article on BBC News that how “Angry Indians tweeted after Diwali fireworks choke Delhi”, and Delhi is just 250km from Jaipur where I live. Anyhow this is not just about Delhi this is the condition of every town of north India. In India it looks like the fireworks industry is growing, people are suffering and government is celebrating Diwali. 

I was all set to celebrate Diwali with friends and family when suddenly in the evening I started feeling choked. Although I was not comfortable from last couple of days because of the increase of pollution levels due to the added pollution of fireworks but on the Diwali evening condition started to worsen. As soon as I came to my balcony I understood what and why it’s happening. The view from my balcony was spectacular you could see the sky filled with fireworks all around you. With that spectacular view the smoke and pollution produced by those fireworks were also easily visible and with every second smoke and pollution were getting denser and denser. 

Population of Jaipur is approx 4 million people who are living in approx 50sq Km of main city area. Imagine if even 1% (40,000) of those 4 million people starts burning fireworks at the same time in the area of 50sq Km what will be the condition going to be of Noise and Air Pollution. This was just about the Pollution from fireworks, rest of the normal day pollution of factories and vehicles was just icing on the cake.  This is what happened on the Diwali night all this pollution combined made the city a Gas Chamber.

With the feeling of choking soon I started coughing also and I could see the smoke and pollution was getting denser and denser by the minute. I knew I had to get out of this pollution soon otherwise I would be in a very bad condition, so I took some water bottles few medicines and jumped into my car. I straight away headed to the nearest highway and drove approx 40Km away from the population and this pollution. Went out of the car took some long breathes of fresh air and within few minutes I was relaxed. Instead of celebrating Diwali with my friends and family I was somewhere on the highway all alone, where I took this pic and spend few hours. “Waited for the city to sleep and Pollution to gone and then I returned to home at the crack of dawn”.