It's Diwali. And am in Mumbai. And am checking some greetings conveyed on Facebook.
As observed in the last few years, this year also I find quite a few people conveying 'stay away from crackers, stay away from noise pollution'. I find it surprising.
Surprising because we, who are living in cities, endure the loud droning noise almost every single hour of our waking life. I bet if anyone can call that music or euphony. I bet if this isn't noise pollution of the highest order. But we have hardly cared about making our day to day life free of such noxious sounds.
And here, on a beautiful festival like Diwali, an integral part of which is firing and bursting crackers, we make a hue and cry about noise pollution! Tokenism at play.
Yeah, I know the common refrain: when we bear it everyday why bear it on a holiday. Such is the pathos of life that a festival turns into a mere holiday and, at best, simply a respite from the mundanity and drone of everyday life.
Better to set things right for our day-to-day life or just curb the joy of noise on a festival like this?
As observed in the last few years, this year also I find quite a few people conveying 'stay away from crackers, stay away from noise pollution'. I find it surprising.
Surprising because we, who are living in cities, endure the loud droning noise almost every single hour of our waking life. I bet if anyone can call that music or euphony. I bet if this isn't noise pollution of the highest order. But we have hardly cared about making our day to day life free of such noxious sounds.
And here, on a beautiful festival like Diwali, an integral part of which is firing and bursting crackers, we make a hue and cry about noise pollution! Tokenism at play.
Yeah, I know the common refrain: when we bear it everyday why bear it on a holiday. Such is the pathos of life that a festival turns into a mere holiday and, at best, simply a respite from the mundanity and drone of everyday life.
Better to set things right for our day-to-day life or just curb the joy of noise on a festival like this?