Diwali - Festival of lights

Happy Diwali to all

This is a special festive season for Hindus (wiki). I have really old memories on how I celebrated. Lights at homes, lanterns, fire crackers and oh all those sweetmeats.

What I loved about this festival was the fire crackers. My parents used to buy me some every year, no matter how difficult it was financially I always had crackers, as years went on and inflation was on the rise firecrackers became expensive. The same amount of money that bought me tons of crackers now only were worth a few.

I used to get a whole box of ticklies (roll of strip to use in a gun) yeah those were fun times, sometimes I would save some for later use when I would play cops and robbers with my cousins. What I really loved about burning crackers was the excitement and fear of lighting the really big bombs. Ah well those were the times and I dont think they will come back.

Many years ago we made a conscious decision of not buying crackers, instead we now fund books and toys for an orphanage and a blind school which are very close to our house.

By not buying crackers I save money, route it to the charities I support and save the environment by not polluting. I also realised that crackers were made using child labour so in a way I am protesting against that also.