Though, strictly speaking, it is the festival of lights, I end up celebrating it merely as a festival of sweets. Children in the house are given the responsibility to ensure that lights part of the ceremony is attended to.Our family, of course, has a way of enjoying the light effects created by not only our children, but that of the entire town of Trichy. Rock Fort is a nice landmark in Tiruchirappalli and on top of this hillock, there is (what else, but) a temple of Ganapathi.
On Deepavali night, if you climb on top this big rock, after quickly praying to the God, you get to see the fireworks of the entire city. It is a lovely sight - completely free. The most wonderful, and Cheapest, way of celebrating Deepavali - the travel costs are of course subsidised by the blessings you get from Lord Ganesha !But, of late, Deepavali in India was becoming more a festival of Sounds than Lights. After living in nice tribal areas for more than 15 years, I am becoming allergic to sound. Gone are the days, when as children we used to vie with each other to burst the loudest crackers.
So, I was pleasantly surprised to read a news item in The Hindu on November 6, 2007, which ran something like this :The Tamilnadu Pollution Control Board has appealed to the public to refrain from bursting crackers, which produce noise of high decibals and cause pollution during deepavali.I was curious - why 125 decibals and why 4 metres ? (Anway, isn't it risky to stand just 4 metres away from a cracker to measure whether it produced 125 decibals ? I guess they have some terrific machines for this, which are deaf and not scared of fire.) But, law is law. I am sure, children would feel cheated if the crackers, after all their elaborate preparations of closing their ears and eyes, go off producing a mere 124 decibal.
Sale of crackers which produced 125 decibals at a distance of 4 metres when they went off was banned.
All these legislations only show that India is developing. (India Shining - not India Screaming !) We have come quite a long way from our national obsession with sound and loudspeakers. While every country would love to reduce the noise pollution, all our trucks running all over the country with national permit 'request' you to 'Sound Please', 'Blow Horn', 'Sound Horn', 'Please Make Noise', and what not !
(After that, of course, you need to wait for side - because giving way to the vehicle behind you is a prestige issue for most of our drivers !)
1 comment:
And these laws work sometimes - there was also a ban on crackers after 10.00 pm - when the noise continued after 11:00 pm, and my niece was getting more and more scared, my father called up 100 and complained and presto! within an hour the noise had completely stopped.
Gouthami
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