Mayank

For those outside India who might be wondering what is happening right now We are currently in the middle of Diwali, the festival of lights (the same one Michael Scott is celebrating in The Office) While it is meant to be a celebration of lights/renewal/good over evil, over the last decade or two, the way it is celebrated has taken a devastating turn for our environment and public health. Historically, bursting firecrackers was a relatively contained tradition. Growing up, many of us did it in limited quantities in local parks or open grounds with our families. It was a small part of a much quieter, peaceful festival centred around oil lamps (diyas), sweets, and community. Meet any Indian right now in your countries, and you will have the tastiest sweets! But today, fuelled by hyper-commercialisation and a manufactured sense of religious defiance, the scale is unrecognizable. Millions of people now flood main roads and highways to set off massive firecrackers for days on end, not out of tradition, but often out of pure spite against environmental regulations. A narrative has successfully taken root that any restriction on firecrackers is an attack on faith, convincing people that choking our own cities is somehow for the "greater good" of religion. The reality on the ground is terrifying. Within hours, hundreds of cities across the country saw their Air Quality Index (AQI) skyrocket from an already poor 100–200 to an apocalyptic 600, 1,500, and in some pockets, over 3,000. (For context, anything above 300 is considered hazardous.) We are currently breathing the most toxic air on the planet. The air looks and smells like a warzone. A thick, metallic smog hangs inside our homes even with windows shut and air purifiers running at maximum capacity. People are coughing nonstop, eyes are burning, and there are multiple fire breakouts across the country, many children and the elderly are literally gasping for air. And because pollution has been politicised and tied to religious identity, court bans are openly mocked and unenforced. Politicians either look the other way or actively encourage it to score votes, leaving ordinary citizens trapped in a gas chamber. There is nothing spiritual about poisoning the lungs of millions of people, terrifying street animals, and turning the sky into a toxic grey blanket. Diwali is supposed to be about light triumphing over darkness, not smog triumphing over our right to breathe. We are living in hell.