Campaign heats up for smoke-free Diwali

While most people are busy shopping for crackers and sweets for Diwali, there are a few who have taken to social media and started campaigning to cut down pollution and spread love. The campaigns have been well-received by people and in turn are invoking people to take pledge for a smoke-free Diwali

Summer’s long gone, but AC’s still on

The festival of lights is on its way. Rephrasing it we can say that the festival of smoke and pollution is fast approaching. Summer is long gone and the ACs are still on. Do we realise what is happening to the earth? Diwali is fast becoming the festival of smoke, pollution, sound and crass display of wealth. But people from different sections of our society have come forward to remind us of what Diwali is all about.

To make a difference

People of tender age have taken to the social media with slogans hitting straight and sharp, one of the pictures in which a child is holding a placard yells, ‘Your smoke chokes me’, while the other reads, ‘Asthma attack, last year. Spare me this year’. These children have become the faces of a new social awakening that the festival seems to have brought this year.

The festival has become a channel for a larger change and the city is experiencing a big piece of it. In the city, a post that has gone viral on social media reads, “When you burst firecrackers, give some to your watchman so he can give it to his kids. You don’t need that much anyway. When you ask your maid to clean the house, stand beside her and help her with her work, she will be cleaning two houses this Diwali.”

And this is not merely a post, it has become a pledge with people sharing it on their walls.

Meanwhile, another social media pledger, P Nhavin Kumar, “Me and my family have decided to cut down on crackers, it’s a waste.”

Photo weapon

A photo campaign that caught people’s eyes and mentally molded them to stand for a change has a person’s note which reads, “It’s October and your AC is still on! Say no to crackers”, “The earth has enough problems already. Say no to crackers”, “Wasteful, harmful, pointless, Why burn your money on crackers?”

The man behind the campaign is Gurmeet Sapal, a Ghaziabad filmmaker who works on ecology and wildlife.

Having put together the initial few photographs with the help of his wife, his son, the children in his building and their neighbours; the photo campaign is now taking off on a different tangent with several people adding their own take to the album.