Sanjeev Malhotra

Diwali used to be my fav festival. Every year I fought to be home in Delhi with my family, wherever I was, whatever I was stuck in. But last night is something I'll remember every Diwali for the rest of my life. My grandparents, both around 80ishh, couldn't breathe. We have a 1yr old cousin at home. At 3 AM we were ordering more air purifiers on Blinkit. Didn't work. By 5 AM we were rushing my grandparents to the hospital through the thickest smog I have ever seen. It felt like an episode of Chernobyl. Except this was us, trying to get our grandparents to a hospital. And the most pathetic scene, the one that's now etched into my heart forever when I think of Diwali: people wearing masks, bursting crackers at 5 am on the main road, at 3000 AQI. Think about that. You know the air is poison. You've put on a mask to protect yourself. And you're still lighting crackers. Either you're too stupid to realise what you're doing, or you just don't care. Honestly I don't know which is worse. Everything else in this world has a cure. This level of stupidity doesn't. People were literally begging their neighbours: pls don't, we have old people at home, we have a baby, we have pets. And all they heard back was "we're just celebrating." How do I even fight these people? How do I tell these Delhi uncles, whose whole sense of pride is having the longest cracker or the most expensive sky shot, that my grandparents can't breathe? How do I make them care? I have never felt this ashamed to be a citizen of this country. Last night was one for the books, and not the good kind. This isn't about education. It's about basic civic sense. We're choking our own country and calling it celebration. There’s a reason we’re still a developing country. With this level of civic sense, we deserve to stay one. @CMODelhi @gupta_rekha @DelhiPolice , when will you feel even a little ashamed? This is the capital of India, and we were scrambling at 5 AM to get our grandparents somewhere they could breathe. Where were you? But honestly, this time I’m more disgusted by the people. Someone is telling you there’s a baby or an elderly person struggling in the house next door, and you still need to light that next cracker. When do we learn? Does it have to be your family next? I used to spend the whole year looking forward to coming home for Diwali. From now on, first fucking thing I’m doing is making sure my family is nowhere near this low-IQ, pathetic, inconsiderate bullshit. Ask anyone with old parents, a small child or a pet what last night was like. I can’t put all of it into words. And I know a post won’t change much. But pls, if you’re reading this, remember it next Diwali.