I hate fire-crackers.

Fire-crackers accompany the festival of Diwali in the same way ketchup accompanies the cheese burgers of McDonalds. And although the ketchup makes the burgers more desirable and give humans the inexplicable pleasure of squeezing the red liquid out of the packets and hearing an occasional rasping sound, the crackers do nothing whatsoever to add fun to this great festival of ours. Well, OK, I understand that whatever those public-welfare stickers and posters say about crackers, Diwali cannot be visualized without a kid holding hands over his ears and with a wincing expression watching a cracker go off; but still, I hate crackers and regard their use as over-rated and something we'd get rid off. Those small meek crackers that go off with a Pop! are fine, but those big ones that're perhaps enough to drown out a hydrogen-bomb explosion are what make me kick the shit out of the snickering kids who blow them off. Just an hour ago, while on my way back from gym on my bicycle I was occasioned with such an explosion followed with my usual reaction of "Holy fuck!". If I'd been an inch closer or had my bicycle's velocity been tad lesser, I'm sure I'd have been sucked into the craters made in the fabric of space-time by that explosion. But, what the hell, I cannot do anything about it, now can I? So, instead of critisizing and maintaining my usual pessimistic attitude towards anything that's not directly profitable to me, I'll smile and wish you all a very Happy Diwali!

Play safe,
- AG.