Diwali well spent by Raipur’s young brigade

The four-day long Diwali celebrations are finally over leaving everyone in the city with some memorable times. With the festival hangover still on in the city, we spoke to a few city youngsters as they shared some new and innovative ways in which they celebrated the festival of lights the year.
It’s all about sharing
As a part of celebrations youngsters in the city decided to light up the worlds of some of the under privileged children and elderly people.Many of the NGOs in the city organized a visit to orphanages. “I feel happy that I was a part of something noble this Diwali. It was great pleasure to be able to make those children happy. We gifted them sweets and other utility stuff and also lit up some fireworks with them. They were more than happy to celebrate their joy with us. I’m looking forward to continue this practice next year as well,” informed Akash Banjare, who is a volunteer with a city-based NGO.
A cultural potpourri
One of the major parts of the festivities is the coming together of the entire society, without any inhibitions. Youngsters from various colonies and societies took Diwali as an opportunity to bring all the neighbours together. They organised various competitions like rangoli making, snack-making and diya painting competitions to bring in the feel of solidarity with some competitive spirit.
“Usually we are all busy in our own lives and hardly know our neighbours and other people from the same housing society. So this year we decided to organize a grand celebration at the society ground where everyone gathered after Laxmi puja. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the get-together and contributed to the celebrations,” said Sukant Yadav, who had organised one such competition in his housing society in Raipur.
Saying no to crackers
For some of the youngsters, the festival was all about caring for the environment by saying only bursting soundless crackers. Most of the families were seen supporting the ‘no firecrackers’ initiative this Diwali and each one had their own reasons to do so. “We have a dog at our place and we have seen how much the noise of bombs and crackers bothers him. Not just the dogs, other animals on the street are seriously affected by the noise and some even get injured by these crackers. Since the last two years, we go for some noiseless firecrackers and even motivate others to do so,” explained Tushar Rajput, a resident of Raipur.
“Being an asthma patient myself, the post-Diwali atmosphere is especially a difficult time to cope with. So, opting for a pollution free Diwali is our choice for the celebration. We motivate others to do the same,” informed Garima Jain, who resides in Bhilai.
Diwali in College hostels
As the semester exams and project submissions are due, hostelites in most of the colleges decided to stay back and celebrate Diwali at their hostel campuses. Hostels of some colleges were beautifully decorated and the resident faculties were also invited into the hostels for celebrations. “We had a great time visiting each other’s rooms. Everyone put their best efforts to decorate their rooms and we even prepared some snacks. Bursting some firecrackers, dancing to peppy Bollywood numbers and playing fun games made it a very exciting evening for us,” informed Sadhna Choudhary, second year student of Disha College.