The Jinxability Blog

I once used to love Diwali a lot. I used to go out with my friends and dare take care of the biggest crackers around. No, wait, I din't like it all that much. It used to be a test of manhood when you were a kid. If you didn't do what everybody did, you were the freak.

We used to make fun of the obese kid who was so afraid that he used to take a full scale sheet of paper, roll it up and then use it to light the cracker.

We didn't let it show that we were as scared as everybody else. Anybody who has 'grown up' now and still says they were so brave and were so completely non-plussed by the idea of lighting one of those big ones and then throwing them over the edge of a terrace, well, apparently they haven't grown up enough yet.

Though looking back on it, Diwali meant painful headaches and boring relatives (the two might've been related). The food was small consolation, but consolation nonetheless.

Religion is so confusing. Half the people who are celebrating don't even know what they're celebrating. Can't blame them though. Religion's stupid folk stories are hardly worth a dime. They might all be as well celebrating the fact that it is a holiday.

Let me be honest. I don't hate Diwali because of it's ties with religion or it's awesomely bad folk lore background.

I hate it because I love peace and quiet. I hate it because I don't want to run the risk of being burned alive just so that some kid can have his thrills. I hate it coz I don't want to wake up in the middle of the night thinking I've time traveled the Vietnam Era. I don't know if they still employ child labourers at Sivakasi, but if they do, you should all be ashamed of yourselves.

Every year, there's a lot of talk about "Safe Diwalis" and "Quiet Diwalis" But some of us just can't resist can we?