While many would have blasted crackers to show their love for Diwali and their religion, many did that to draw that sense of pleasure power. Delhi became a gas chamber immediately after the much needed rains which had brought the AQI to negligible levels and all thought that it would relieve their lungs. “I might live a little longer”, many would have thought but that was not to be. The very next day, it was Diwali and we all decided to burn our very own future and the future of those young toddlers who look at us with hope that they won’t have to cough all night long or feel choked because their elders decided to burn crackers. Another reason for burning also could have been, to compete with thy neighbour and to make him feel like a lesser mortal!
Without discrimination, we all inhaled the black air and tested our lungs. To add to it, the sound of crackers broke all decibel levels and went on till 4-5 am in the morning. If we think our act of burning will stop, we are sadly mistaken. Our act of burning shall continue, till we burn off our planet earth. The reason being that the sum total of the immense pleasure, benefits of living on an edge, false sense of pleasure power is much higher than the costs of consequential impacts of that living on everyone in a society. Hence people continue smoking, drinking, cheating, corruption practices, dropping bombs, invest in high risk assets, serial killers kill, abusers abuse and the list can go on. We humans once again proved that if left to ourselves by law enforcing agencies, we will leave no stone unturned in breaking all possible laws.
This Diwali, the cheater in us did not cheat anyone else but our very own selves. HAPPY BREATHING!
