The fog was dense, a little artificial you could say, by the smell of it. The burning smell of gun powder still made it a little hard to breathe but not too much to complain about. Diwali celebrations ran all night long in the colony with sounds, each louder than the previous one, and of rockets buzzing towards the sky and bursting with a loud bang, spreading colours of happiness and satisfaction. But now, 7 hours after all of it, in the morning, the consequences were coming to life. GHMC workers crowded the streets, singing to themselves and cleaning the left overs of the crackers. They collected them all, piled in a 3 feet high dump, it was left to burn. You could hear in intervals, the crackers which weren't lucky enough to burst the other night, burning now. I watched it for a minute while passing by, my nose covered with my hand, a gesture of false satisfaction that I can smell nothing that way. I couldn't help but smile when I thought, every morning after every Diwali, it’s the time of municipal workers. They clean, they dump and they burn. And to their luck, at least half of the crackers in the piles they collect, burn just as new. They would stand there looking at the flames and ash falling out with force as each unburnt cracker, burst, before they moved on to a new lane.
I walked a little further, towards the shop I was headed to, half of me lost in the thoughts I had in mind and the other half concentrating on songs I was listening to, over the earphones. “BAMM”, and a small kid runs into me from nowhere. As I bend down to help him get up, he gets back on his feet and starts running again. I try to look back at him and I see another kid pass by me in a hurry. I stop and turn back, staring at them because something seemed strange about them. Both of them were shabbily dressed with uncombed hair and loose clothes. One of them held his shorts to his waist with both his hands as he ran. They both stopped in front of the pile of burning crackers and stared. For a minute it seemed right as I thought they were enjoying the scene for they wouldn't have celebrated yesterday which I could tell from their clothes. They watched, as the fire engulfed everything, whispering to each other and pointing fingers here and there.
“WTF”, I shouted to myself, for what I saw next was hard to believe. I ran towards them, trying to reach there fast and not caring about the earphones that slipped and got tangled in between my feet. One of the kids suddenly put his hand in the fire and started spreading the pile, while the other one tried to stamp it with his feet, his bare feet. I shouted as I reached them, trying to intimidate, asking them what they were up to. I could see, they were pretty successful in putting out the fire within seconds. Now just a little of it remained at the sides while there was still 1 feet high dump of scrap left, in the middle. One of the kids responded to me while the other one was still busy searching something in there, in between those burning ashes. I asked them, “What are you trying to do?”. Looking up at me, still holding his shorts with one hand the kid replied, “Anna, we are trying to find crackers to burn”. Still trying to figure out what he said, I told him, “These are the burnt crackers. What do you hope to find in a huge pile of scrap? Go away from here and don’t do this again. You can end up burning your fingers. Be careful”. They both just chuckled at my face, “we do this after every Diwali. We don’t get to buy crackers, because mom says crackers are for rich people. So we just sit down on the flyover and look at the sky on every Diwali. And next day morning, we wait for the cleaners to pile it up and burn so that we can search for unburnt ones. We then take them back to burn with other friends”, they said. I couldn't speak for a minute as I looked at their innocent faces, moved by what I just learned, a harsh truth so hard to accept that we choose to ignore it. There are people around us who hope for just a little, and when we fail to help them, they go around trying to find a used piece of happiness, to find that little they aspire for. “Where do you live?”, I asked them for I couldn't digest the picture of two small kids sitting on the flyover at midnight. “There”, they pointed as they held up their hands to show me a small hut supported by the pillars of the flyover, just as small to fit in four people at the most, and safe, well it was a word far from what I could feel.
“WTF”, I shouted to myself, for what I saw next was hard to believe. I ran towards them, trying to reach there fast and not caring about the earphones that slipped and got tangled in between my feet. One of the kids suddenly put his hand in the fire and started spreading the pile, while the other one tried to stamp it with his feet, his bare feet. I shouted as I reached them, trying to intimidate, asking them what they were up to. I could see, they were pretty successful in putting out the fire within seconds. Now just a little of it remained at the sides while there was still 1 feet high dump of scrap left, in the middle. One of the kids responded to me while the other one was still busy searching something in there, in between those burning ashes. I asked them, “What are you trying to do?”. Looking up at me, still holding his shorts with one hand the kid replied, “Anna, we are trying to find crackers to burn”. Still trying to figure out what he said, I told him, “These are the burnt crackers. What do you hope to find in a huge pile of scrap? Go away from here and don’t do this again. You can end up burning your fingers. Be careful”. They both just chuckled at my face, “we do this after every Diwali. We don’t get to buy crackers, because mom says crackers are for rich people. So we just sit down on the flyover and look at the sky on every Diwali. And next day morning, we wait for the cleaners to pile it up and burn so that we can search for unburnt ones. We then take them back to burn with other friends”, they said. I couldn't speak for a minute as I looked at their innocent faces, moved by what I just learned, a harsh truth so hard to accept that we choose to ignore it. There are people around us who hope for just a little, and when we fail to help them, they go around trying to find a used piece of happiness, to find that little they aspire for. “Where do you live?”, I asked them for I couldn't digest the picture of two small kids sitting on the flyover at midnight. “There”, they pointed as they held up their hands to show me a small hut supported by the pillars of the flyover, just as small to fit in four people at the most, and safe, well it was a word far from what I could feel.
“Here, take this money and buy yourself some new crackers and promise me, never to do this again”, I said as I reached out for my wallet and handed them a few hundreds. “Mom will scold us for taking the money. Take back these two notes, Anna. We’ll keep these two. We don’t need many crackers so we’ll buy rice for mom and dad”, they replied with so much maturity for that age and handed me over the rest of the money. I insisted them taking all of it, but they looked at each other, smiled and simply nodded in denial. “I am getting late. I’ll see you guys around but be careful with those crackers”, I spoke in a hurry as I swiped a call from my mom into silence mode. I had totally forgot that she asked me to get back early with the packet of milk I was supposed to buy for the morning tea for an unexpected guest. I felt happy as I turned around and smiled to myself, tugging in my earphones. “Anna”, I heard’ both of them shout from behind. I turned back saying, “What?”, struggling with my earphones. “Will you come for next Diwali?”, they asked me politely as I walked back up to them. I looked down at them, smiling, “Sure, we’ll sit down together on the flyover next time to look at the rockets in the sky”, I replied. And as I walked back, I prayed God to put them out of what they were, to somehow wipe away their hardships and to give them a better Diwali, next year.
Nobody is wrong and nobody is right. All of us, we ask God for so many things. So many things even when we have more than what we would ever need. So this Diwali, as you light up “Diyas” at your place. Light a few more, just for all these people and pray to God to give them at least half of what we have. Let’s be selfless for once, just once. HAPPY DIWALI
- Azad Hussain
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