Problems and problematic solutions
There are no straight answers. Never was, never will be. Choose any hot topic from the extensive spread of current affairs and sooner or…
There are no straight answers. Never was, never will be. Choose any hot topic from the extensive spread of current affairs and sooner or later, you’ll be confronted with the dire need to maintain balance. A bittersweet spot where your arguments and beliefs begin to make you appear contradictory and opportunistic although that wasn’t your intention. At all.
Welcome to the complex world we’d rather come to enjoy.
In blunt words, what we’ve got today for ourselves is a mirage of self-interest. A remarkably strange circumcision of logic to ensure nobody, including ourselves, call out our shortsightedness. We make detrimental decisions all the time. We’re fully aware of the damage calories, salt, polythene, sugar, pollutants, etc. do to us but for some mysteriously suicidal reasons, we continue to ruin the environment as well as ourselves.
Yes, it’s crazy.
Think of it as peeing in a swimming pool knowing very well that there is chlorine in it.
Better still, think of it it as peeing in a swimming pool knowing very well that there is NO chlorine in it.
Either way, all you are concerned about is relieving your bladder without having to drag your lazy ass out of the pool and into the urinal.
Why else do you think the public litter? One word answer: convenience. It’s not like the miscreants want to untidy, just that they can get away with it. Kicking a garbage bin is easy. Putting the garbage back in the bin isn’t. The same conjectural principle applies to a lot of activities conducted in societal spheres. The ineffectiveness of honking in traffic jam had been established time and time again and yet, you believe in the magical power of pressing a button and making the vehicles in front of yours disappear. There are way too many examples of this behaviour, especially in countries like India, where the value of life is exactly as much as the value of peace.
As a result, there is little to no consideration for others’ space. Particularly in urban areas. One doesn’t have to witness an ambulance blocked on a busy road to understand this embarrassing subcontinental phenomenon. Again, road rage isn’t to be blamed here. Utter lack of humanity is.
Which brings us to the burning topic of firecrackers. Yesterday, Supreme Court (SC) of India banned the sale of firecrackers for 3 weeks in Delhi. A welcome decision for all those — which includes me — who despise the noise associated with Diwali. As expected, this move was termed as a judicial overreach by some who study law as well as those who can only see things in religious light. For the former, it’s a sign of unnecessary regulation which often leads to communal tension. For the latter, it’s a proof that the SC interferes only with Hindu festivals just because it can.
First thing first, Diwali is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains; calling it a Hindu festival would be correct provided the presence of cultural connotation. Secondly, judicial overreach is much-needed in a slow country like ours where an overreach from the legislative or executive bodies seldom happen. Thirdly, banning anything in India is as effective as spitting at the moon. Lastly, we ought to stop looking for solutions without grasping the inherent problem.
Unless you are an extrovert with a hidden passion for aggression, there’s no way you’d appreciate the sight or the sound of a firecracker bursting in your neighbourhood. It’s 2017 and we know the damage the whole festive exercise does. Forget the street dogs and their pedigreed counterparts and other pets and the birds around, let’s focus on humans. For the joy of the few, the entire society goes through an aural trauma reminiscent of the war-torn Middle-East. As if the noise wasn’t hellish enough, the chemical effluents emitted into the ambiance cloud the sky for days. The case is severe in NCR region as has been noted over the past several years. Which makes the SC ruling ad hoc and almost just.
Except that it doesn’t solve the problem.
Banning the sale of firecrackers for 3 weeks would barely leave a dent. We are talking about a city that is big on owning cars. Add to this component the seasonal burning of fields in Punjab/Haryana—despite laws against this practice — and we’ve got a poisonous cocktail of asthmatic haze for Dilliwallahs. Furthermore, if at all SC wanted to make a point, it should have banned firecrackers across the country the way Sao Paolo did with public hoarding, political or commercial. That might have set the right tone and positive results could have emerged in the future. Why tolerate firecrackers during weddings, cricket match celebrations, new year’s eve, other festivals? Moreover, what’s the gain in punishing the small- and medium-sized chemical industry for a 4-7 days circus without drawing a professional alternative for them? In the end, people on both ends of the buying and selling spectrum will resort to what they do best: bypass the law.
In such a scenario, smoke would continue to rise and those who can afford to visit the hills shall escape. As for the rest of us, we’ll spend our time debating how Diwali is a festival of light and not sound, conveniently overlooking the fact that none of the festivals retain their ancient core. If not, Christmas would neither have turned into a year-end consumeristic parade nor Santa Claus inadvertently advertised the shades of Coca-Cola. For good or for worse, innovation can’t be dammed. Just like we change, what we do also changes and how we do it also changes. The finest way to deal with such situations is to cut the noise, not run around in circles and tackle the issue head on.