Diwali Dhamaka- this ubiquitous phrase owes its origin to the custom of bursting crackers during the festival of lights. For the last five years the debate on negatives of lighting crackers and sparklers during Diwali has been getting shriller. This is mostly due to the thick smog that descends over cities post celebrations. The winter nip combined with smoke from crackers make for a vicious combination which burns the eyes and chokes lungs well after Diwali.
However most of the discussion against crackers goes up in smoke on the Diwali day when arguments begin to tilt towards tradition, customs and rituals. The number of crackers being lighted has been decreasing every year but not to the desired levels. The main reason for this being the lack of alternatives.
Nostalgia and habits make it impossible to keep crackers out of Diwali shopping list. Just as herbal colours have made a dent in the use of chemically harmful colours during Holi, a green alternative can have the same impact on Diwali too.
Probably for the first time there is an alternate in the form of seed crackers handcrafted and marketed by Gram Art Project, a rural collective in Paradsinga, a small village in Madhya Pradesh. Taking their successful initiative of seed rakhis forward and applying it to crackers, they experimented with the idea last year. Using recycled handmade paper which is packed with seeds ethically sourced from local farmers, these crackers explode the myth that its only barood (gun powder) that is required to make crackers.
The seed crackers are the brain child of Shweta Bhattad, founder of Gram Art Project. A professional artist and a gold medalist from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Shweta has been sensitive towards social and environmental causes which she has highlighted through her art and performances at different art biennials across the world. “The chatter against crackers resonates in our villages also as here we have seen the impact crackers have on animals too,” says Shweta who then harnessed this thought by roping in 100 women from seven villages to produce a bouquet of seed pathakhas which include items like rocket, ladi, tikli, anar, chakkar, laxmi bomb, hemp bomb.
Keeping an eye on the aesthetics, Shweta has ensured that the seed crackers are the exact lookalikes of their more noisy counterparts. “Nothing less will satisfy our urge to light a cracker,” she feels. The seed crackers are to be soaked in water for an hour and then can be placed in a flower bed or a flower pot. “Instead of putting a matchstick to it, one has to water it every day and soon the seeds sprout and small shoots appear,” Shweta explains.
Over a short period the seed crackers will erupt in the garden as fruit and vegetable plants depending upon what has been sowed. The ladi will bloom into a row of micro greens, coriander plant will emerge from tikli, rocket will be a climber plant cucumber, anar and laxmi bomb will give a small harvest of lady finger and sonapatti and so on.
There are ten varieties which come in packs of four, eight or ten in boxes handcrafted out of used cardboard. The prices range from Rs 350 to Rs 850 depending upon the number and type of cracker. The same can be ordered online at www.gramartproject.org or by calling on 9373112912/8087137637
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