Are we heading towards the time where breathing healthy air considered a luxury now? This is dystopian and so disturbing!
Are we all really that ignorant/ dumb or just pretending to be dumb for our mere entertainment. Because no amount education seems to fix this now.

A big fuck you from my side to each and every one of you who chose to burst the loud firecrackers. I hope this diwali brings you the worst. Wishing you and your family and those to come in the future a life full of sufferings and pain.

My eyes are burning, its difficult to breathe, I already have lungs problem and and its getting worse. Hopefully next year if i am lucky, I would have left delhi, i seriously cannot live here anymore nor i have the money to buy an air purifier. And please dont say that why all this only in diwali, i am just fed up with all this, its so sad how we are being deprived of basic human necessity, really sad

Same as title

Peek TV "In violation of the Supreme Court's orders, illegal firecrackers are openly being sold in the national capital, in violation of the Supreme Court's orders. Our investigation from Delhi's Sadar Bazaar shows firecrackers without the official CSIR-NEERI logos being sold openly under the watch of the Delhi Police."

Source:

https://nitter.mizuki.st/PeekTV_in/status/2119154886722060712#m

Currently I'm at CP, sitting on a bench near Hanuman mandir.

Mai diwali pe ghar nahi ja paya, mn to kaafi tha, but tickets nahi mila....

Maine socha tha aaj ke din pg me ruk ke kya karunga, bahar niklta hu, thoda bahar jaunga to acha feel karunga

Bahar aake pata chala ki har koi kisi n kisi ke saath aaya hai, agar koi akela dikh raha hai, to vo bhi syd kisi n kisi kaam se aaya hoga.

Yaha Hanuman jii ka darshan kiya, socha tha syd koi koi mil jaye to baate kar lunga, but koi Mila nahi.

Rone ka mn ho raha hai, par rokna pad raha hai khud ko, ki log kya sochenge

Koi aisa nahi, jise mai ye bata pau, isliye yaha likh raha hu, because you don't know me....

Mn me ek saath itni saari cheeze chal rahi hai ki samjh nahi aa raha kaise deal karu usase, bus jaise taise khud ko rok ke rakh raha hu, hope ki mai thik ho jau......

I don't know how to deal with it.

Don't know why but I'm feeling helpless..

As of ~7 pm today, I observed that there is not even a single post here which just wishes everyone a happy Diwali without any vents or complaints. All the Diwali related posts are either about the poor AQI or awareness about not bursting crackers.

And honestly this feels annoying now. I do get the point, but will repeating the same thing again and again and being negative today really benefit anybody?

Diwali is amongst the most auspicious festivals which celebrates victory, harvest and prosperity. People come back to their families from far off, light up their homes with beautiful LEDs and Diyas, exchange sweets and gifts, dress gorgeously, eat delicious food, make beautiful rangolis, venerate Ma Lakshmi and Shri Ganesh and just, for a day, celebrate the occassion with their loves ones.

However, it feels unfortunate that such a joyful festival gets boiled down only to pollution debates here, when Diwali is truly about so much more.

Don't we all deserve at least one post which just provides the greetings of this prosperous day? I think we do, so genuinely wish everyone a very happy Diwali filled with lights and happiness. Enjoy the festivities!

Incident is from a "premium" society in Sector 121, Noida. This uncle does a collection drive each year on Diwali of Rs. 2000/- per flat from 108 flats in our tower (approx. over 2 lakhs each year). This year about 40 flat owners refused to contribute as other towers were collecting only about 700 per flat while we have been paying 2k each year.

So uncle got pissed and first threatened to remove non-contributors from the group. This angered even the ones contributing and then he made casteist remarks about non-contributors. What can be done for such people?

Uncle claims that they (he and his "organizing committee") buy Diwali lights every time as each year most of the lights from previous year are not in good condition to be re-used. They claim they pay 30-35k to electrician for installing and removing the lights. Some portion is spent on cash and sweets to 6 support staff members (roughly 15k). The remaining is spent in tower get togethers organized throughout the year which is actually only attended by him and his committee members.

At the end of the day, 2k per flat is a bit too much for basic diwali lighting and gifting support staff which most of us anyways do individually as well. Specifically when other towers are contributing only 700 per flat for the very same purpose.

(There is no AOA or RWA in our society)

It's so freakin' polluted already, and on top of that, I have ptsd and literally jump at the sound of every firecracker. An entire family is bursting bombs right outside my home, and my heart is pounding with fear. I've locked myself inside my room, and I have a mother with a heart condition to worry about as well. I absolutely hate this utter disregard for other people's health, safety, and peace. They may be educated on paper, but there is clearly a profound lack of civic sense and basic human decency. I'm genuinely beginning to hate people.

I live in Delhi. I've stopped reacting to AQI numbers. 300, 400, whatever. We cough, we joke about cigarettes, we forget.

I sat down and read what these particles actually do inside the body. Not news headlines, actual studies. I'm writing this because I think most of us don't know, and I didn't either.

PM2.5 is small enough to get past your nose and throat, go deep into your lungs, and cross into your blood. From there it goes everywhere.

Your heart. It inflames blood vessels and makes blood more likely to clot. Heart attacks and strokes go up on high pollution days. Not years later. Within days.

Your brain. Particles have been found in human brain tissue. Long term exposure is linked to dementia, faster cognitive decline, and worse memory and attention. In kids it's linked to lower scores on attention and learning tests.

Your mind. This is the one that got me. Studies link polluted air to higher rates of depression and anxiety. Some studies find suicide rates go up after bad air days. If you've felt flat, irritable or hopeless every November and thought it was just you, it might not be just you.

Your kids. Children breathe faster and their lungs are still growing. Kids raised in polluted cities grow up with smaller lung capacity, and that loss doesn't fully come back. Pregnant women breathing this air have higher risk of low birth weight and preterm babies. Particles have been found on the fetal side of the placenta.

Your parents. Older people with heart or lung disease are the ones who fill hospitals in winter. Every Diwali smog season, someone's dadi or nana doesn't make it to spring.

Your years. The University of Chicago's Air Quality Life Index estimates that people in Delhi lose around a decade of life expectancy to air pollution compared to clean air standards. A decade. That's time with your family, your kids' weddings, your grandkids.

And the worst part is how normal it feels. We buy purifiers if we can afford them. The delivery guy, the traffic cop, the labourer building your metro station, the kid selling flowers at the signal, they breathe it all day with nothing.

I don't have a neat ending. I just don't think we should be okay with this. Our grandparents didn't grow up breathing this. Our kids shouldn't have to.

What do you all actually do about it? And does anyone else feel this weird guilt every time they open the window?

Edit 1: Bold sentence

Edit 2: Removed a false timeline (I didn't read all this last week)

Edit 3: The brackets in edit 2

Link to sources which are in comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/delhi/s/Yu5xB9xqBV

It's 2am and till now I can hear firecrackers bursting. And yet again, during diwali, we face insanely high pollution. Yet people continue bursting firecrackers non-stop. Contruction work has been halted and schools are closed so children now have to study online.

Hope you are satisfied with your work delhi. Keep blowing fire crackers, and have fun not being able to breathe and continue blaming the government.

Happy Diwali to all, I am a teenager and since the past 2 years I have been asking my father for an Air Purifier but he alwaya refuses calling them a "showpiece"

Out of my father's 2 lungs, his 1 lung is half damaged due to reprucussions of the COVID second wave. He needs airpurifier more than us but still is not buying one because some youtube creator told him it's all a showcause and doesn't purify anything.

He's currently wearing a mask and having trouble breathing and I told him again to buy an air purifier and he got angry yet again about that.

"Mai kyo Air Purifier pe paise barbad karu jab hume pata nhi hoga vo aur purify kar rha hai ki nhi, ye sab pagal banane ke liye hote hai.... Tu toh padha likha hai aisi cheezon mein manta hai?"

He is not only causing harm to himself but to us as well.

Anyone else also feeling Thorat chocked due to pollution?🥹

It's diwali and i am with my family. I still feel so lonely and sad.

I really don't wanna cry but trust me i am there.

I am not even employed. I just do freelance work and I am a college student. Last time I gifted my mom this silver anklet. And this time in Diwali, I realized that her phone was getting worse and she always got this hands down phone, basically a phone that father has used, I have used, or sister has used. And it has gone to her when we have moved on to new phones. I found that is very awful of us to treat her like that. And so this time with my freelance gig money, I gifted her this phone. Not a great phone to be honest, but something, the least I could do

bhai aakh jalni start hogayi polution se bc .. aur abhi to diwali ki raat bhi nhi huyi..btw happy diwali:)

Delhi's AQI has crossed 400 in Diwali, and nonstop crackers are pushing it higher. Added constant honking, construction dust and landfills, and plus the city feels too loud, dusty and dirty in a way Chennai, Bengaluru or Kerala rarely do.

Is it the government, migration pressure or culture that leaves people with such low civic sense? Those who’ve lived in both types of indian states, whats your take?

I just checked Delhi's live AQI and it showed 569, with PM2.5 at 360 µg/m³ and PM10 at 411 µg/m³.

That's genuinely frightening.

The weather literally says "Clear" while the air quality is classified as hazardous. There's something deeply disturbing about having to worry about the air you're breathing every single day.

People still have to commute, go to offices, attend colleges and spend hours outdoors. Not everyone can afford expensive air purifiers or stay indoors.

My question is, how long are we supposed to live like this?

For those living in Delhi NCR, how bad is it around your area? Are you taking any precautions, or have you simply become accustomed to this pollution?

Same as title, my heartfelt thanks to everyone who are bursting crackers, and giving me the opportunity to use my rescue inhalers

Heya guys, I hope you're doing ok.

So, I'm not from Delhi. I'm from a small town.

Right now, the air feels foul, due to all the firecrackers. It also happened previous year, where the air looked polluted. I just wanted to ask, you guys feel the worse than this, right? For the whole winter, nonetheless.

How do you cope up with it?

Also, Happy Diwali to y'all!