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The Delhi smog has left the residents literally gasping for breath. Is it worth a day's merriment? Maybe it is time to #ReInventFestivals?
The Delhi smog has left the residents literally gasping for breath. Is it worth a day’s merriment? Maybe it is time to #ReInventFestivals?
Festival times are – indulging in merriment, carring forward traditions and spending time with family. But as we come across disturbing images of rivers of blood in Dhaka to the dense smog in Delhi, I can’t help but think – one day of merriment, several days of miseries! Is it worth it?
We say education helps us to see the flip side, does it really?
In the run up to Diwali, pollution was on the top of the mind for everyone. Posts were written, statuses were updated, tweets galore and a war cry – NO CRACKERS, GREEN DIWALI, SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT. The future looked promising given the amount of buzz around. And boy, did it happen? Well looking at the density and intensity of the Delhi smog, looks like they were mere words after all!
Yes, I agree the burning of crops and the direction of the wind has made it worse, but that doesn’t rationalise our actions. For a change, instead of finding excuses and hiding behind pretextes let’s just take responsibility for our own actions and stop passing the buck. The buck indeed needs to stop with each one of us.
So we asked our readers would they consider an alternative way of spending Diwali. This is what they said.
via GIPHY
The reinvention comes from less focus on crackers, more on just spending time 🙂 #WomenOnTheMove https://t.co/vjumhgA9EH — Aparna V Singh (@editorsahiba) October 26, 2016
The reinvention comes from less focus on crackers, more on just spending time 🙂 #WomenOnTheMove https://t.co/vjumhgA9EH
— Aparna V Singh (@editorsahiba) October 26, 2016
For me ‘traditional’ part of Diwali is that it’s about family. Like to spend with parents or ILs #WomenOnTheMovehttps://t.co/vjumhgA9EH — Aparna V Singh (@editorsahiba) October 26, 2016
For me ‘traditional’ part of Diwali is that it’s about family. Like to spend with parents or ILs #WomenOnTheMovehttps://t.co/vjumhgA9EH
@womensweb A1. Celebrating Diwali in a traditional way has itself become different these days. I love to follow rituals. #WomenOnTheMove — Pallavi Kamat (@Pallavisms) October 26, 2016
@womensweb A1. Celebrating Diwali in a traditional way has itself become different these days. I love to follow rituals. #WomenOnTheMove
— Pallavi Kamat (@Pallavisms) October 26, 2016
@womensweb a festival to meet with family and friends — TravelingNoodles (@anjujayaram) October 26, 2016
@womensweb a festival to meet with family and friends
— TravelingNoodles (@anjujayaram) October 26, 2016
@womensweb With the strong influence of western culture, it’s important to emphasise #festivals as family occasions.#Diwali #womenonthemove — Vaishali Gandhi (@vaishali178) October 26, 2016
@womensweb With the strong influence of western culture, it’s important to emphasise #festivals as family occasions.#Diwali #womenonthemove
— Vaishali Gandhi (@vaishali178) October 26, 2016
@womensweb#ReInventingDiwali making cracking sound with just a paper!. My daughter’s way of celebrating pollution less Diwali — jey (@jeydevi) October 26, 2016
@womensweb#ReInventingDiwali making cracking sound with just a paper!. My daughter’s way of celebrating pollution less Diwali
— jey (@jeydevi) October 26, 2016
@womensweb This time I decided not 2 buy expensive lights from outside, but make my own. Fairy lights in decorated Keventers bottles 😍 — Swarnima (@SwarnsB) October 26, 2016
@womensweb This time I decided not 2 buy expensive lights from outside, but make my own. Fairy lights in decorated Keventers bottles 😍
— Swarnima (@SwarnsB) October 26, 2016
@womensweb Diwali without #crackers only with #lights #love and #mithai #womenonthemove — Back to the Front (@back2dfront) October 26, 2016
@womensweb Diwali without #crackers only with #lights #love and #mithai #womenonthemove
— Back to the Front (@back2dfront) October 26, 2016
@womensweb making traditional sweets with healthy twist at home #WomenOnTheMove — shruti mahajan singh (@shrutimsingh) October 26, 2016
@womensweb making traditional sweets with healthy twist at home #WomenOnTheMove
— shruti mahajan singh (@shrutimsingh) October 26, 2016
With the debacle of a pollution causing Diwali behind us, and the festive season still not over with Christmas and the New Year coming, maybe we should introspect on what we should be doing.
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A part time backpacker, an accidental baker, a doting mother, a loving wife, a pampered daughter, an inspired blogger, an amateur photographer read more...
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As he stood in front of his door, Nishant prayed that his wife would be in a better mood. The baby thing was tearing them apart. When was the last time he had seen his wife smile?
Veena got into the lift. It was a festival day, and the space was crammed with little children dressed in bright yellow clothes, wearing fancy peacock feather crowns, and carrying flutes. Janmashtami gave her the jitters. She kept her face down, refusing to socialize with anyone.
They had moved to this new apartment three months ago. The whole point of shifting had been to get away from the ruthless questioning by ‘well-wishers’.
“You have been married for ten years! Why no child yet?”
I huffed, puffed and panted up the hill, taking many rest breaks along the way. My calf muscles pained, my heart protested, and my breathing became heavy at one stage.
“Let’s turn back,” my husband remarked. We stood at the foot of Shravanbelagola – one of the most revered Jain pilgrimage centres. “We will not climb the hill,” he continued.
My husband and I were vacationing in Karnataka. It was the month of May, and even at the early hour of 8 am in the morning, the sun scorched our backs. After visiting Bangalore and Mysore, we had made a planned stop at this holy site in the Southern part of the state en route to Hosur. Even while planning our vacation, my husband was very excited at the prospect of visiting this place and the 18 m high statue of Lord Gometeshwara, considered one of the world’s tallest free-standing monolithic statues.
What we hadn’t bargained for was there would be 1001 granite steps that needed to be climbed to have a close-up view of this colossal magic three thousand feet above sea level on a hilltop. It would be an understatement to term it as an arduous climb.
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