About Last Week

 “Ma, she’s running all over the place!” Jo was finding it hard to speak. 

“What are you saying?” Jo’s mother was squinting and covering her ears, “I can’t hear you.” 

“Wait, let this be over.” Jo tilted her head towards the window. Her mother nodded back. Then came a three second window and Jo all but shouted rapidly, “Ma, Ali is running all over the place, kya kare (transl.: ‘What to do’ in Hindi)?” 

The feline was running from one corner to the other of the house, trying to stay away from the side where the most noise was coming from. “Let’s close the windows of that room and put her there,” Ma pointed towards the one room in the entire house that wasn’t habituated. 

“But it’s too dark and she’ll get scared even more Ma,” Jo complained. 

“Jo, whatever you say, she’s not getting into your bed tonight,” her mother paused before continuing, “and neither are you sleeping with her in that room.” 

“But Ma, she’s frightened. Have you ever seen her like this in the year it’s been since we got her?” Her mother was silent now. Jo saw that she could convince her if she said the right things, so she started out slowly. “Ma, I promise she’s not going up on my bed. She can be in her carrier for all I care, but she shouldn’t be left alone. We might just lose her.” She hadn’t planned it, but her voice cracked. Her mother sighed. 

“Jo… You’re right. She’ll be fed and tucked in but unless it’s to go in that sand box, she’s not to be let outside that carrier. Is that clear?” Her mother was using her characteristic calm-before-the-storm-voice and Jo gulped. Yep. No way was she going to get around that! 

“There you go,” Jo was saying to her pet Ali, three hours later. “I’m sorry about all the noise that is frightening you.” Ali began to squirm in her carrier. “Ma said that you can’t sleep on my bed so I’m bringing the bed next to you,” Jo said as she spread out her mattress and wrapped a blanket around herself. “Good night Ali girl and I am so sorry that you only have unpleasant takeaways from this year’s Diwali.” Ali just looked at her with a low growl and dilated eyes. 

A Note from the Author 

There was an ad I recently saw about a jewellery company that asked its audience to choose diyas (tiny mud lamps) over crackers for this Diwali. I myself was torn inside with the idea of celebrating anything when the World was still addling from the repercussions of Covid-19; but as some of those who trolled the ad had said, it is not ‘my’ festival and I shouldn’t have a say in who should or shouldn’t burst crackers. Infact, bursting crackers is the most important part of the Festival of Lights right? Absolutely and undeniably – wrong! If anything, Diwali is about the triumph of good over evil – and defining the evil of this era has never become such a difficult task as it has now! 

Another group of people may say that firecrackers aren’t the only thing contributing to air pollution and environmental degradation, so why take the candy away from the kid? To them, I agree that most of those factors may not be under our control (especially if they’re talking about policy reformations). But bursting firecrackers? From the moment we decide to buy them to the moment we light them, that is a definite choice we are all making. So how about we cut the crap about that ad ‘hurting religious sentiments’ and try to understand that it was one tiny step towards saving our Earth? 

Considering the fact that the Earth existed much before the human race, it therefore becomes our duty to guard and till it, for the brief time we are here on it – even if it means choosing to light mud diyas instead of crackers. Because while we may be able to handle the noises, there are other innocent inhabitants of this Earth that can’t; and this brings it back to square one. Whose side are we on? The so called human race who consider ourselves the centre of everything or bigger things like the Universe, the balance of nature and sustainability for future generations?