So Diwali is coming upon us. Parties are being planned and celebrations will be in order. Clean out the house and get it ready for the New Year.

This truly starts the happiest part of the year for me. Happiness spread around the Diwali time frame that goes into Thanksgiving and the entire month of December, which ends with the New Year. Won’t talk much about the depression that follows ;-)

Just the other night, some friends and us were talking about the various types of firecrackers were used to light during Diwali…it was fun to recollect those memories and even though we were from different parts of the country, we ended up discussing similar crackers! And strange enough, similar ways to abuse them!

Some examples of crackers and their (mis/ab)use:

1. Standard sparkler (phool-jarri)
2. Spinner (Jameen-Chakkar)
3. Anaar - the conical one and the big pot where you have to make a hole with the back of the sparkler and then light it
– a misuse of it was when these things would defuse without flowing fully, they would be thrown in the final bonfire and lit up at the end!
4. Telephone - tie the string on two trees and light it and see it go up and down. All of us thought it was stopped for some reason, and we concluded it must be for safety reasons.
5. Snake - dirty smelling, and mess-creating black pill-type thing which you light up and see it create tubes and leave a black mark on the floor.
6. Of course, the ‘Laxmi Bomb’ or ‘Atom Bomb’ - the green bomb with the loudest sound.
– a misuse of it was to put it in a Bournvita can or worse, in a rat hole!
7. Those pink-and-white ‘tada-fadi’ - the most common noisy cracker, came in various sizes.
– the worst feeling was at 4am on New Year’s day when some idiots in the neighborhood would set up a 10,000 reel with a whole bunch of laxmi bombs in the middle. The noise would never end, it would be loud for lack of other ambient noise and it would leave the entire street filled with pink and white paper mess. Besides, the smoke would take forever to clear out.
8. Rockets - the popular, crazy crackers which were typically lit in a Thums Up bottle.
– a misuse of it was to light it in someone’s hand and let it go whichever direction it would go (burnt curtains was the ‘worst problem’!); or on a level ground, to light the rocket HORIZONTALLY, and let it take off due to uneven terrain!
9. Pencil - colorful nonsense cracker which just spit colored sparks and created unnecessary smoke ;-)
10. Sparrow bomb (Chakli bomb) - those little triangle things which could be lit with an incense stick in the left hand and throwing it after lighting it in the air. The noise level is low and is fun to see it burst in mid-air.
11. Pistols and the corresponding rolls of pellets - the most irritating in terms of noise because they could be used INSIDE the house!

Can’t remember more, but these are a lot! I am glad I put them down on paper. I have not lit firecrackers for a LONG time now and would love to see some in action. Not sure when I will be in India during Diwali next ….