The Diwali dream

Rat – a – rat – putt putt rat – a – rat went my gun. It was berserk with all the soldiers hiding from the incoming hail of bullets. Grenades were exploding showering shrapnel all over. A friend of mine was wounded just in the abdomen and blood was pouring out in bucketfuls. Another of my colleague was on fire and people were trying to put out the fire. The smoke in the air was suffocating everyone around adding to the fear lurking in the psyche of the people. Suddenly the bullets stopped and the cacophony of the guns halted. Was this the end of the war or calm before the storm? Zeeeeuuuu came the noise of the missile which was fired at the other end and which was surely heading my way. Jumping out of the pit and running towards the forest was my only escape but the missile kept following me like it had the infrared target on me. I could see the cone of the missile smiling with an evil grin like mocking me. Boom was the last sound I heard before I woke up from the nightmare. Sweaty and startled I looked around as my room partner was snoring away oblivious to the shock I got from the nightmare and prodding me to think whether the boom noise was from the nightmare or from the cracker bursting somewhere or from the snoring of my friend or did he simply fart?

Well first of all happy Diwali to all of you and hope that you had a blast (no pun intended) this year. It is actually quite stress busting to see smile on everyone’s face during this time of the year, due to the vacations that they get or the sweets that the calorie conscious wife allows the poor husband to gulp down, or simply due to the discounts and freebies that the shops provide to boost sales in the most busy time of the year. People shop the whole day and then burst crackers all night. Well if there is an earthquake at this time of the year then I am sure that hardly anyone would be able to recognize it until a building nearby falls down and even then some would be skeptical if it was an earthquake or simply a high decibel cracker that brought it down.
The spirit of Diwali was pretty evident in the air as even the animals living down my apartment were howling in excitement. The faithful dog who is always at the entrance of my building was not present over there which aroused my curiosity as to where was it celebrating the auspicious day and lo! I found him in one of the dark corners of the building wincing every time a cracker blasted somewhere. Poor soul must have been under an impression that India was at war.
As I live on an apartment on the terrace I was fortunate to see the lighted sky without venturing out in the open. Unfortunately an old guy also lives nearby my apartment who must have seen thrice as many Diwali’s as I have seen. Suddenly a cracker burst nearby with an intensity equal to the 7.0 on the Richter scale which shook the whole building and I just lay hoping to God that the old man was alright.
I always believed that Diwali is a festival of lights and was never able to understand why people celebrate it with crackers that are not only a torture to the ear but also polluting the atmosphere to a degree where even the God above has difficulty seeing the natural resources of the earth getting depleted. I looked upwards to see if any star was visible there but the blackness looked back at me saying “mind your own business”.