Children of Eastern High have been celebrating Diwali without crackers for — not one but — three years now. They have been spreading the glow by collectively lighting diyas instead.
This year about 25 children aged between six and 15 years lit some 3,000 diyas in the common area in the complex. The earthen lamps were decorated to form outlines of shapes of candles and diyas themselves. “We had fun lighting the lamps and of late I prefer this and rangoli-making to bursting crackers,” said Sanhita Das, 14.
Since there’s always a risk of accidents when dealing with fire, some adults were assigned the responsibility of watching over small groups of kids. About 10 to 12 such parents chipped in along with staff members of Eastern High.
The “Diyawali Diwali” celebration made use of 3,000 diyas with 17l of vegetable oil for the project.
“The busting of fire crackers is a tradition on this festival but it has lost its context today due to indiscriminate pollution. The children too do not want to indulge in what they know is harmful to the environment,” said a member of the complex’s cultural sub-committee. “In fact we are proud to have begun this practice long before the courts decided to ban crackers.”