Climate Action and My Diwali Aspirations

Dear friends,

Happy Deepawali /Diwali to you and your family! I hope all your aspirations come true during this festival of lights. Through this post, I would like to share how Deepawali was a festival that lead to achieving my aspirations.?

I grew up in the 80s and 90s. I fondly remember Deepawali in my childhood. I enjoyed firing crackers of all types - flower pots, chain crackers, the atom bomb, rockets, sparklers etc. The joy of firing crackers faded for multiple reasons over the years. It started with the pain the street dogs in our locality experienced because of various crackers sounds, especially one of the dogs, "Daamu" whom my sister and I used to adore a lot.

Even though Daamu was a street dog, he was nothing less than a family to us. Daamu followed me like that pug in the Hutch/Vodafone ad - He came with me to school, the playground, Sunday morning walks etc. During Diwali, Daamu used to feel scared and badly panicked. Besides my love for Daamu, it was during the same time I got an environmental encyclopaedia as a prize for winning a painting competition, which helped get my early exposure on ill effects of sound pollution and air pollution. I became further conscious of environmental hazards due to firing crackers with the help of my sister, Rohini, who is older than me by four years. The news claiming child labour being involved in making crackers was the final nail in the coffin. We completely stopped firing crackers when my sister was in high school, and I was in 5th grade. We continued with the long-time tradition of having beautifully lit clay diyas around the house.?

While we decided to stop firing the crackers, we did negotiate with our parents to divert the funds allocated for crackers to something we aspired to the most back then. If I remember it right, my sister actually made a deal with my parents to get a subscription to a monthly magazine called Wisdom.?WISDOM was a famous general knowledge magazine that had a mission towards educating, enlightening and entertaining children and young adults. In the deal with my parents, I had managed to squeeze in some part of the money to get a good quality tennis ball - Winson official (to play tennis ball cricket) along with the magazine subscription. Buying the ball from a local sports shop was an extraordinary joy.

As I carry the fond memories of my childhood, I wanted to divert the Diwali crackers funds for something I aspire the most today. My aspiration today is a planet that I grew up in the 80s and 90s rather than the one we all have today. I aspire for a planet with more biodiversity, lakes, trees, fresh air and water. I aspire for a cooler planet and equitable access to natural resources. I aspire to a cleaner planet. Above all, I aspire for love and happiness for all.?

I'm super glad to hear about Climes's Diwali Gift campaign. It's a mindful campaign carefully crafted for conscious consumers of today, who aspire for a cleaner, safer and fairer planet for their children and generations to come. Through this initiative, I gave 1100 Climes to my sister Rohini to spread some climate love as a Diwali Gift. The climes I have gifted will be utilised for financing various Climate Action projects across the country and world so that we can reverse climate change. I urge my dear family, friends and colleagues also to do Diwali Gifting using Climes. Do follow the below link to learn how:?

https://transform.climes.io/gifts/diwali

Once again, wishing you all a happy Diwali!

Regards,

Ganesh