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These Kerala women play with fire, make crackers
Published on Thu, Nov 08, 2007 at 21:14 in India section
Tags: Diwali, Thiruvananthapuram
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Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): The country may be buzzing with Diwali celebrations and to do that they may be saying with crackers but have we realised what is behind the smart packaging and the colourful wrappers
There are a group of women engaged in one of the toughest jobs this season who play freely with gunpowder. They are racing against deadlines to give you that perfect cracker this Diwali.
Their expert fingers toil tirelessly in a small village on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram despite all the risks involved.
“We have lot of problems to face. Risk of explosion is biggest problem. And even of we have license the police sometimes harass us. But then we do this as Diwali comes near so as to get that extra income,” says a worker, Sunitha.
While the women make the locally popular ola-padakam, wrapping gunpowder in dried palm leaves, the men get busy making the more noisy ones.
Thankfully for these family-run units that traditionally make crackers for temple festivals, there is a mad rush at shops this time of the year.
“This is the time we do maximum business. So for the last few weeks we are very busy making crackers here. We have two or three outlets here that make the crackers. After this we can only depend on temple festivals. So Diwali is the best time for us to make some money,” says a shop owner, Ramachandran.
For a majority Diwali is all about sweets and diya but in this part of the world it is undoubtedly the crackers that rule.
So this time round when you buy crackers, spare a thought for those people who make it for you. Wishing you a happy and safe Diwali.
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Irrelevant story!! Kerala doesn't celebrate diwali.. And to report that the firecracker industry gets more business during this season in
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