Sir,
Diwali is a festival of lights.It is one of the most popular festivals and is eagerly awaited.It inspires us to remove darkness of ignorance and attain the light of knowledge.It symbolises victory of good over evil and brings joy and happiness on the face of everybody-the young and the old.We ought to celebrate this festival of lights with religious fervour and great pomp and show.Generally what happens is that people burst a lot of crackers which cause huge pollution of air.Bursting of loud sounding crackers has an adverse effect on the health of people, especially on the old and the sick, the small children and asthmatic patients. It has also an adverse effect on the animals including pets such as cats and dogs.We ought to realise that this earth belongs as much to the animals as to human beings and we should not do anything as makes them feel comfortable.It is better if this festival is celebrated it in a manner that instead of bursting crackers and causing air and noise pollution, we celebrate in a simple and ecofriendly way.We should decorate our houses, shops etc by lighting clay diyas and thus, bring joy and happiness in the lives of those who are engaged in this trade.
Moreover, on this auspicious occasion, the best way to celebrate this festival of lights is to make a difference in the lives of the poor and destitute and the underprivileged.We ought to visit orphanages and oldage homes and interact with the inmates and spend quality time with them as they are away from their homes.We also ought to buy gifts such as clothes, notebooks, books, bunches of flowers, shoes etc and gift them to the poor children such as ragpickers, living in slums to make their lives better and bring smiles on their faces .We can also organise small gatherings of street children, play with them, burst environmental friendly crackers , give them sweets and thus, make them happy.
All these ways of celebrating Diwali are much better than spending hard earned money on bursting crackers and adding to the noise pollution and air pollution.
Yours etc….
Ashok Sharma,
on e-mail
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