Sunday, October 26, 2008

Discrete Diwali

A careful combination
of the ingredients
fell into hands
that crafted with
elegance,

Stuffed
.
.
.
Rolled
.
.
.
Sealed
.
.
And finished
with a topping.

Thousands of them
they made,
For making these
crackers,
they were paid.

Finally the moment
arrived,
with the allowance
in hand
they took to their heels
For this was to be a
day with three meals.

Crackers are made in a Tamil city called Sivakasi. A sad yet true fact is that this industry hosts the greatest number of child laborers in Tamilnadu who earn a meager amount by rolling the gunpowder into crackers and the only part on the year they are paid well is during Diwali.

6 comments:

Art and Poetry said...

Its good that you bring this out into the open. I don't know what the answer is but I liked the poem!

Muse said...

Way to go, my contemplative girl. Very thoughtful :-)

Anonymous said...

hey...!! nicely done...
like a&p says... good try to bring it out into the open, but what do we do abt it is a question with no known answer now...!!

vinay.

ps: 100th post is up on my blog.
do visit and join the celebrations!!

Arjun said...

Yeah.. but very sad....

If the gov't can somehow attract rural parents to send their children to school we might see a gradual change.....
Came across ur blog randomly.. Looks good.. :)

Cheers..!!
Arjun

RiverSoul said...

I've personally stopped burning crackers. This is simply so that the industry will cease to exist someday when d demand is nil.
And the workers can have a better and a lot safer life elsewhere.
:)
Blog updated, nan.
:)

Kartik Srinivasan said...

Thought provoking! and very well expressed...especially their joy for having the three meal day..how much do we take things for granted!