small satori at work

For almost 20+ years now I have always said that  Deepavali need not be about bursting crackers, the mindless spending of money on wasteful expenditure to burst loud crackers to create toxic fumes that hang on the city for couple of days choking every breathing lung, is not a way to celebrate any festival. But, this year i am afraid talking about air or noise pollution on Deepavali day will make me look like an anti-national. -- rhetoric is the lazy first step ('ask the christians to stop bursting crackers during christmas', 'why do you remember pollution only during hindu festival'...), these will be seen  in the coming days in online posts and responses by the lazy gang -- then comes the obscurantist smarty-pants view that can cite from unknown and unheard of scriptures, preferably in sanskrit,  to justify polluting (as far as i know lighting of lamps are the only ones prescribed and none of the chemical ways of lamps or crackers were in vogue when the last time ...