Last Day of 2012

Its very much like just another day in my daily routine life. Family, Kids, Computer and Sleep. Nothing new as such. Life is such a routine nowdays. My morning started with cup of tea with family members which is usually a daily event because without this the bowel movement seems impossible. After having that special sip of lovingly prepared Ramdev tea and playing with children and all the ho-halla of the morning events comes the time to freshen up  get relaxed. In this chilling winters of Delhi, its really next to impossible to survive without the hot water even for the daily motion activity I wish I can have it. So next comes the relaxation part when I came and sit in front of my laptop. My room, my bed, my quilt and my laptop with wifi internet. As soon as I lay there, start surfing my daily websites, checking out my mails and blogs and just as I open up the notepad to scribble a few lines there came the voice calling out my name.

"Beta! Aaj khane mein kya pasand karoge?" 

Gosh!! its Ma. She was asking what would i like to have in lunch. 

The moment i can give a respond to her question another bouncer came from her. 

"Idli bani hain. Wahi kha lena. Baache to wahi khayenge"

I generally don't like Rava Idlis very much so I said why not have some rice dosa or rice idli. She said ok but you have to go and buy some stuff from the market. I was feeling a bit lazy so requested my sister and wife to go and get the stuff from the market and specially the dosa batter and Nariyal for chutney from the Keralite shop. The went to the market and got the stuff. 

During all this time I was enjoying with my kids, teaching them how to do their holidays homework of hindi, english and maths. Followed up by the Art Session after all that work. Immediately, after getting over with art session, was the request to play Doraemon or Ramayan movie on television. I just tell you today's kids have a bag full of energy in them and they can never get tired. I was literally exhausted after all this session and went to rest.

To cut the long story short its that we all had dosa, kids had idli with the coconut chutney prepared by me and sambhar prepared by my wife. 

After all that long day with family came the night. I was busy fixing up my laptop operating system. Oops! Oh! Sorry! I forgot to tell this that I messed around with my laptop OS the other day, when I was trying to upgrade it and install Windows 8 64bit version over Windows 7 32bit but end up fucking up my laptop. 

So it's several minutes past midnight of December 31st 2012. Two and a half hours ago, my family had just eaten dinner. Mother had made her typical desi ghee dosa, sambar and coconut chutney. It was delicious. I ate a lot. Then the round of sweet dish chana chikki, gazak, moongphali chikki, til chikki and gazak biscuits the speciality of the day. Off course we all had the dinner together and enjoyed a lot. 

Like I said, I had eaten a lot, so I felt having a promenade around my house stairs. I immediately reentered my house stairs: the smell of gunpowder gets on my nerves. 

Its really been chilling winters going on so me and my family are not very observing of New Year local traditions. Meeting other people, going or visiting here and here. We just have our own way of enjoying by spending time together and chit chatting. Two hours past the former events, i was thinking to ignite a few fireworks with my kids. We have saved a few of phooljhadis from diwali to have a good time at new year midnight. 

Midnight arrived. Yes! its midnight! Unsurprisingly, the level of noise has risen. The fog has grown more thicker. Its really chilling as we go up the house terrace, from where we can see fireworks coming even from places far from the house. I don't just notice the fireworks; the sky is red: freaking blood red. I wanted to ignite the fireworks; but each time i see towards the sky i see fireworks soaring into the black and red dense night, leaving behind the grey cloud of gases and dust. Soon after, seening all that i dropped the idea of igniting the phooljhadi because of my kids health issues as its freezing cold. We all agreed to come down and close all the windows and doors becuse of the heavy noice and gunpowder released into the air. Later, I must have acknowledged that the smell of the gunpowder that i described earlier was trival; the smell of gunpowder pas midnight is mundane, at least comparatively. Because of winters the people down on the streets burn all sorts of things like paper, wood, plastic and what not. Imagine what's the smell of the air in a country where half the population is burning waste things at the same time. 

Also, I can hear the drunk people shouting Happy New Year and all sorts of other dramatics with local slang abuses, songs and slogans. People are enjoying it but I feel they are also crossing the limits. A few young guys, I saw from my terrace were drinking at the corner of the street and then throwing the empty bottles and breaking them. There was noise and shout everywhere. It was not really human like behaviour. 

Well all these described activities releases dangerous amount of gases into the air. Both fireworks and firecrackers and other noise makers usually contain gunpowder, which releases sulphur salts and carbondioxide into the air. Burning plastics, paint boxes, wood and papers provokes combustion of these things. Both fireworks and firecrackers also contribute to noise pollution for days: people like kids, old and medical patients have to suffer a lot. Color giving salts from fireworks are made of metals in cholorate or perchlorate form, resulting in a thicker airborn particle density. Fireworks worsen light pollution which has been inconspiciously detrimental to human health for decades.  I have not yet taken into account the danger posed by storage, commercial or domestic, of fireworks and firecrackers. Oops, I just did. also, let's take into account the amounts of paper, wood, plastics and whatever materials consumed for production of these novelties. Really, I could make an extensive list of inflammatory but sensible accusations at them, but i just wanted to be "brief".

Its about time I openly admit it: I hate fireworks, firecrackers and people who burn things in open in winters. Plus, I'm Hindustani, which makes my disdain for fireworks pretty much interesteing. I grew up in Delhi, which makes my disdain for these things as much peculiar. Firecrackers make a mess out of my house. I had to ask the sweeper in the morning to sweep it off. 

Frankly, its not like I have a grudge against holidays or celebrations: but only Diwali and New Year Celebrations. But, alas! no one can help to stop all this. After all this tamasha i came back to my room, after my kids are sleep and the whole house was quite at 3.00am in the morning i was sitting on my chair and fixing up my laptop operating system issues. Nothing special was there in the last day of the year too. It was just the same as on in the usual daily life. 

By the way, have a Blasting and Prosperous New Year. Ji Aaya Nu Nava Saal. Enjoy.