Diwali is NOT a festival of noise and smoke (A Psychological Take).

Diwali is a festival of lights. It symbolises the spiritual victory of Dharma over Adharma, light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance.

I guess everybody knows this and agrees with it. Still, I see a lot of people blowing all sorts of crackers: crackers that make small noises, medium noises, large noises, and deafening super-loud noises. With technological advancements, some crackers can change colour like some people. Some can even make noise on the ground, then go up high in the sky and make multiple sparkly lights and crack noises covering a large area.

The more you are ready to pay, the better the fun. People pay exorbitant amounts to see their money blow up in a few seconds. It's like purposefully lighting your money on fire. Turn it into some sparkles, lots of blow-paper garbage, and tons of freshly polluted smoke for everyone to breathe. I saw many people wearing N95 masks and lab goggles while doing this beautiful eco-friendly activity.

I was in the same stupid category until 7th grade. I have been there and done that. I wanted to find out why people blow crackers. Why do humans' rational minds act so irrationally? Then, I found this post on Quora (written by - Anupriya Saraswat), which enlightened me.

It's basically human psychology - we live for the thrill. Two of humanity's most natural fears are the fear of falling and the fear of loud sounds. Both indicate a survival instinct and were developed as evolutionary measures to keep the species alive. Both evoke a thrill upon being experienced—your body releases endorphins whenever you're terrified as a way to prepare for imminent danger.

Flight or fight, it's as simple as that. Now that our lives are much safer, we deliberately seek these triggers to get that endorphin rush. With their loud and sudden sounds, Crackers give us a momentary thrill, which we subconsciously seek. It's the same reason people pay to watch ludicrous horror movies—fear gets us high.

Also, the colours and sparks add to the visual appeal. So, we forego eventual ecological damage for momentary thrills. Another contributing factor is machismo. Owing to the fear factor and the inherent danger of injury, we view crackers as a way to display our bravery.

The bigger the bomb, the braver you are. It's a show of bravado and of establishing dominance—like peacocking—observe the adolescent boys in your locality next Diwali for proof. It panders to our essential human nature and provides us with ego boosts.

When I was back home in Mumbai this Diwali, on the first day of Diwali, we did 'Abhyanga Snan'. We ate homemade sweets, made rangoli, wore authentic traditional dresses, worshipped goddess Laxmi, and took fantastic photos of our Diwali decorations and ourselves in those beautiful dresses. Then we went outside for a walk in a nearby playground, where plenty of kids and adults were doing a very productive activity: blowing crackers!

It took seconds for the crackers to blow up, but big clouds of smoke remained around the playground for hours. If you confront someone and ask why you are polluting the air with firecrackers, some would say, first, ask those countries to stop using missiles and bombs in the war. If they are allowed to do that, why should I stop blowing crackers? It's like, if they are poisoning their environment, why shouldn't I? I see no sense in WASTING my time arguing with people like them.

I took the time to write this because I care, and I would like to breathe clean air. I am sure you do, too. Let's work together to make our environment cleaner and safer for everyone.

If you have confronted someone, you may have heard different, equally irrational arguments; I would love to listen to them in the COMMENTS section. Your perspective is vital in this discussion.

Credit: Photo by Tanusree Mitra on Unsplash