Visakhapatnam: While the nation will be revelling in Diwali celebrations on Thursday, Vizag will be observing the Hindu festival in a rather calm and sombre manner. Vizag will be a dimly lit place on Diwali, also known as the festival of lights, owing to the cyclone Hudhud. While power connection has been restored to many areas in the city, due to lack of power supply to streetlights in a majority of areas, the city will be wearing a deserted and dark look on the day of Diwali.
Dazzling fireworks will also be absent in the city this year with the ban on sale and usage of fireworks in the city to avoid fire hazards as the entire city is littered with drying up tree debris. The city has about 800-1000 small and large cracker shops and the cracker business is worth about '10 crore annually, with the ban on crackers the business has also fallen flat.
Cityfolks seem not to be in a mood for even shopping for clothes or jewellery for the festival. Owner of a well-known mall in the city says, “The cyclone seems to have dampened the festive spirit of Vizagites as all the shop owners in my mall are registering a dip in their business.” Sale of jewellery, which was already affected due to the ongoing period of modamu, which is inasupicious according to local beliefs, has lowered further post-cyclone, says P. Srini-vas, owner of a jewellery store in Kurupam Market.
However, this Diwali is going to be about being responsible towards the nature and about solidarity in Vizag.
As the city has lost vast swathes of its green cover due to the cyclone, planting of a few saplings is expected to be taken up by many cityfolks on Diwali rather than fire crackers.
Along with this many Vizagites are also expected to avoid grand celebrations and instead divert the money meant for celebrations to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.
