This Diwali I found two reasons
to be sad about. Apart from the fact that this might be the last Diwali I get to celebrate at my home before I set out for my higher studies, the other was obviously the crackers and the dense clouds of
smoke they emanated. One is always tempted to burst a few of those nasty little
things. But what do we get out of them other than just a few seconds of
adrenaline rush? Have you ever asked yourself if it was really worth the tons
of pollution we cause?
One day before Diwali I went to
see a cracker show at Chandimandir, Cantonment area of Chandigarh. The show was
beautiful. Beautiful light and sparkles covered the sky. The officers
continuously lighted rockets and other fascinating crackers and the effect was
wonderful. Even I was awed by the beautiful scene they put up. But behind those
lights, I could also see the ghostly smoke! It totally obliterated the fun of
watching the crackers burst and hearing their exhilarating sound. And
it only brought one word to mind, why! I still have no answer to the question
that why are we doing this.
I don't know who to blame, the
guy who invented crackers or the people who use them stupidly without thinking
of what they're doing to the environment. Today, I was studying for my toefl
exam and listened to a passage which talked about how Plato defined that a
human soul consists of three faculties namely Desire, Emotion and Intellect.
Presently, we've forgotten the golden rule of goodness which states that a soul
is defined as being good when all three faculties exist in harmony. The
intellect needs to control desire and emotion for that harmony to exist. Our
desires and emotions have increased to such a level that our intellect has been
fogged and is now being controlled by the desires. Truly, we're growing towards
our own destruction. I don't believe in the Dec, 2012- End of the world
theories cooking up but it seems that we humans are pushing our luck a bit too
hard on this. From our behavior, I feel as if we ourselves want the world to
end soon!
What will you think about a
little boy if you saw him deliberately picking up a vase and dropping it to the
floor? Probably that he's either mad or gone rogue. Well that’s what I feel for
us. I'm no different. Even I'm not going all green and planting trees, minimizing
my use of paper or saying no to crackers (Oh yes!). That is the actual sad
part. Just think how you'll feel if you got to know that the little boy was
you. It is frustrating when you know you're wrong but still end up doing the
same!
My mother actually came up with a
good idea. That cracker shows should be organized in all cities and individual
sale of crackers be banned. But that needs effective implementation of laws and
that seems far-fetched for our country right now.
But isn’t change supposed to
start within you? Isn’t drop joining drop supposed to form the ocean?
So when will you follow Gandhi
and ‘be the change you wish to see’?
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