November is here, people! You know what that means? For a lot of us nouveau riche Indians, it means "Oh, did we miss the Holloween party?" For the humbler ones among us, it's time for DIWALI! That means the kids will cry for new toys, new clothes, new pencil boxes, spiderman underwears, while the party-planning committee in your office (if there's such a thing) will be busy brainstorming over their corporate gifting ideas. Please send good-quality dark chocolate, folks. Don't prove that you're cheap by sending Cadbury Celebrations with those mini-chocolates in them. Oh, and speaking of November, it's also time for some low-visibility days in our national capital. Poor Delhi-ites . This is one of the rare occasions where your heart will go out to them. Especially so if you have ever experienced how difficult it is to breathe anywhere outside the city's metro trains.
Lots of factors have contributed to the foul air in the city; crop burning in Punjab and Haryana, vehicular pollution, poor air circulation in the region during this time of the year, and if you think of it the cooler temperature in the winters too. Cooler air means denser air, and as a result, the concentration of particulate matter will be higher in the winter. Whether that logic rings a bell somewhere, the folks in Delhi will want for clean air for a couple of months. The somewhat good news is that the Supreme Court has announced that "Thou shalt only burn green crackers." Up for a technical joke? If you want your firecrackers to burn with a green flame, you need to have barium compounds in them because, well, chemistry. But apparently, if barium is part of the ingredients list of your cracker, it can no longer be classified as a 'green cracker'. Got it?
Now, every Saturday, The Hindu has this one, massive, 2000-word Op-Ed article that looks rather daunting, honestly. The newspaper calls this piece 'Ground Zero', and it discusses some excellent topics. This week, the massive spread was on the Honourable Supreme Court's directive on green crackers and how it has had devastating consequences for the cracker industry. If you're into long reads, I suggest that you check the article out. After spending a good 12 minutes on the piece, nostalgia hit me like a brick. Diwali is staring us in the face, and just a few days before it is when our big guns at Mandi house have let loose their polar-bear saving instincts. God bless them if they can save their fellow citizens from the noxious air they must breathe.
But the present scenario reminds me of examinations. Yes, examinations, those ugly, unpleasant, forgettable events that yours truly, like most of you, absolutely dreads. Remember how we used to lock our rooms during the last hour before the exam? The good ones among us crammed in an entire semester's worth of wisdom into our thick skins in those final moments. Nah, I wasn't among the good ones. My grades will make you cry; they at least make me cry. Another topic for another day (or never, perhaps). Back to the topic at hand. So yes, with its latest directives, our highest court has spewed out a bunch of instructions to prove that it is concerned about the well-being of our lungs. However, like our exam preparations, is it a wee bit too late?
If the Supreme Court had a bespectacled teacher, she would have given our boys in black a nice thrashing, screaming "Had you prepared even a little, had you paid an ounce of attention during the EVS classes, you'd have had half the brains to yank these new instructions out of your backside earlier, *gasping for breath* and not 2 hours before the country was all set to celebrate the victory of good over evil!" Whoever said good and evil are subjective was a complete nut now, isn't it? Now, no refuting that the pro-green-firecrackers stance is a great move, but does it hold water, especially at this point and time? It is a step in the right direction but like the ban on the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, it is solving an ostensible problem while triggering a cascade of troubles.
For a start, most of the cracker vendors, most of who are illiterate, don't grasp the concept of green crackers. Heck, from the little I have read on the topic, the fellows studying the subject aren't clear about what makes a green cracker. We will reach a clearer resolution, but that's not happening soon, at least not at the staccato rate that the new rules are being dished out.
The cracker-making business has unsurprisingly taken a hard knock to the head, and it won't be long before their big clients would want to return their goods, for a refund. The industry will have to figure a way out through the directives, get clarity on what this whole green cracker business is all about, or find loopholes they can leverage. But then they are good at the latter, aren't they?
The slump in the cracker industry also portends a spike in unemployment. Agreed, the industry falls into the unorganised sector, but the people who risk life and limb to make crackers – who make ends meet with it – will have to find new jobs. That's probably a good thing as long as they can find a less hazardous profession to earn a living. There are other upsides too. The drop in the purchase of firecrackers will help the air and noise pollution, but we know that already. The latest measures will help spread awareness about how badly we need to keep our air clean, and only a dramatic move like the one facing us can accomplish that. Lesser crackers mean lesser of the red-and-white confetti that's strewn on the roads the morning after. Goodness, that's an unpleasant sight. Plus, lesser smoke, sound and waste means we can concentrate on the sweets and the good food that's probably part of some wise neighbour's plan.
