Thiruvananthapuram: The people seem to be careful with their choice of crackers. G Murali, a small-time businessman from Chirayinkeezhu, says, “I buy only sparklers, as everything else is dangerous. See what happened in Paravur?”
You might come across some who, when you ask the way to a shop selling firecrackers, dissuades you from buying them. Anilkumar from Sasthamangalam said to a prospective buyer on Wednesday, “You should go back. More than a 100 have died in Paravur because of firecrackers.”
The shopkeepers too exercise caution but for a different reason. Take the case of a cracker shop in the city, where the shutters were down on Wednesday. This was unusual even for Thiruvananthapuram, where not too many city residents choose crackers to celebrate Vishu. But if you ask at the shop next door, you would be directed to the back of the shop.
Voila! Behind closed doors were shopkeepers ready to sell you firecrackers. “The last few days there have been many raids. So we decided to keep it this way,” said the shopkeeper.
The district administration had issued a press statement saying that there would be many more raids during the week. However shopkeepers in the city insist that unlike Diwali, the Vishu stock is much less. “If we stock 500 kg of crackers during Deepawali, during Vishu it is just 50 kg,” said Santhosh Kumar a shopowner.
That said, you do not wait for tradition to burst crackers. Jobin from Pathanamthitta was at a city shop to buy them. But do Christians celebrate Vishu the same way as Hindus? “Why not? Perhaps it is time for change,” he said.
