Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

City sparkles in Deepavali splendour

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Ghostly shapes sizzled up to the sky to vie for attention with ‘moon drops’ as the capital city prepared on Wednesday evening to usher in the festival of lights.

A jump in the price of almost all varieties of firecrackers did little to curb the sale of rockets, ‘malappadakkam,’ flower pots and ground ‘chakras.’ According to those manning cracker shops there was a shortage of certain types of crackers, including ‘Malappadakkam’ this year.

The ‘ghost rocket’ was one item that caught the eye and fancy of many who went cracker shopping. “Once you light this rocket it goes up and forms the shape of a skeletal being. This is priced at Rs.100 per packet of five pieces,” said G. Sreenivasan who mans a shop selling crackers in the Fort area.

There was also brisk demand for the ‘moon drops’ rocket which, on reaching a certain height, causes a shower of meteorite-like globules. This rocket is priced at Rs.140. Yet another variety of cracker that made its appearance at shops in the city was the ‘grape garden.’ This ‘comet cracker’ was priced at Rs.110 a piece.

‘Following the crackdown on child labour in major fireworks manufacturing centres in Tamil Nadu, many items are being machine-made these days. This has also resulted in the production of good quality crackers,” Mr. Sreenivasan added.

The bulk of the sales, however, were in conventional cracker items such as sparklers, flower pots, ground chakras, wire chakras and fire pencils. With some schools in the city sensitising students on the dangers of sound pollution there were many who consciously stayed away from purchasing exploding crackers.

For many others Deepavali eve was more about lighting up their homes using candles and earthen lamps.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Silver jubilee celebrations at St. Mary’s seminary
KSRTC offer to pilgrims
BSNL festival tariff
Children’s rights
KPCC flays violence
Sathyan award for K.S. Chitra
Government to mobilise funds
Road maintenance to be completed soon: Minister
CBI probe sought into airport trolley contract
City sparkles in Deepavali splendour
M.Phil holders not to be exempted from NET
Control room opened
Antibiotic sensitivity kit developed
TBGRI to be linked to eco-tourism network
Motorcyclist killed in accident
Thiruvananthapuram Today

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu