Villagers sacrifice crackers for birds

Hush… villagers of Kittampalayam in Karumathampatty are gearing up to celebrate another noiseless, tranquil Deepavali. From elders to children, everyone in the village has been celebrating a cracker-free Deepavali for the last six years. Reason: They just do not wish to scare away the winged visitors that throng their village.

“This year, too, it will be a silent Deepavali for people of Kittampalayam,” said Mr R. Palanisamy, president of the Noyyal Pasumai Kazhagam, which created awareness on a quiet, eco-friendly Deepavali in the village.

It all started in 2008 when a campaign was undertaken by the Noyyal Pasumai Kazhagam urging villagers not to burst crackers. “Within a few years, there has been full compliance among the people. Now, we have stopped creating awareness, but people still continue to stick to the policy of not firing crackers knowing its ill-effects,” said Mr Palanisamy.

Volunteers from the organisation, along with students from A.R.C. matriculation higher secondary school and Kongu Vellalar matriculation school, plan to meet villagers and honour them for their cooperation.

“We will visit residents door-to-door and honour them by saying thanks for making the entire village proud by not firing crackers,” he said.

“A large number of winged visitors like bats, mynah and cattle egret visit the huge banyan trees located here. The public stopped celebrating Deepavali with crackers realising that it disturbs the birds.

Thousands of bats could be seen clinging to these trees during the day. As they fly out at night, different varieties of birds take shelter on these trees,” said Mr Jothimani Ramasamy, president of the Kittampalayam panchayat.

Are the children of the village not tempted by the light and sound of fireworks elsewhere?

“I know that our enjoyment should never be at the cost of birds. I also feel good that my act leads to peaceful living for the birds,” said T. Bavisnu, a class 5 student of Kongu Vellalar school and a resident of Kittampalayam village. For these kids, Deepavali is all about wearing a new dress, savouring sweets and snacks and being glued to the TV sets. And enjoying the sweet chirps of the birds.

Kovai based Sri Krishna Sweets (SKS) has turned spicy green chillies into a mouth-watering sweet delicacy. With a lingering green chilli flavour, the halwa is a culinary innovation for the festive season.

Besides, the Turkish sweet, bhaklava, a Mediterranean dessert made of phyllo dough and stacked with honey and nuts, is another sweet addition to the festive flavour.

All the seasonal fruits have been creatively churned into delicious halwas on the SKS shelves. From watermelon to pineapple and mango halwas and the perenniel favourite, carrot halwa, a panoply of halwas is being prepared for Deepavali. Of course, when it comes to Deepavali, traditional sweets like laddus, badushah, jangiri and the mysurpa easily outscore the innovative halwas.

This year, SKS is going online with its sale of sweets and snacks. “The products that reach you would be shipped and delivered within 56 business hours right from our kitchen to your doorstep. The portal can be accessed at www.buykrishnasweets.com and the prices of the products are almost same as those available on the retail shelves,” Ms Vaishnavi Krishnan, the director of SKS, said.

A part of the online proceeds will go for identification, prevention and clinical care of children suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a serious muscle condition inherited due to genetic defects.

According to the founder and managing trustee of Molecular Diagnostics Counselling Care and Research Centre, Dr B.R. Lakshmi, specialist in biochemistry and genetics from IIT Madras, the condition that largely affects male children has no cure and the victim does not survive beyond 20 years of age.

“As the muscles in these children gets weak, their mobility gets impaired gradually. As heart and lungs are also muscles, most often these children die of respiratory distress,” she said.