Deepavali 2023

Wishing everyone a very Happy and Prosperous Deepavali !!

We celebrated yet another silent Diwali as our farmer brothers in Punjab ensured that they burnt enough stubble to make Delhi NCR a gas chamber. As expected the Supreme Court banned crackers. Interestingly the Supreme Court also ordered stoppage of stubble burning, much after the damage was done.

The following thread was posted by @ANI on the topic – Supreme Court asks Punjab government to stop the stubble burning.

Air pollution in Delhi-NCR: Supreme Court asks Punjab government to stop the stubble burning. Supreme Court observes that there can't be a political battle all the time. 

“We want it (stubble burning) stopped. We don't know how you do it, it’s your job. But it must be stopped. Something has to be done immediately,” SC to Punjab.
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Air pollution in Delhi-NCR: Supreme Court says Punjab government is seeing a scenario where due to paddy crop water table declined drastically with wells going beyond redemption. 

“You are promoting millets on one hand and then letting paddy ruin groundwater…,” Supreme Court to Centre.

Supreme Court says a serious look is required whether this kind of paddy should be grown in the time period in which it is grown, 15 years ago this problem did not arise because such cropping did not take place. Supreme Court says this crop has destroyed the water table of Punjab. Weather around Delhi affects it. 

Air pollution in Delhi-NCR: Supreme Court directs Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan governments to stop stubble burning forthwith. 

Air pollution in Delhi-NCR: Supreme Court makes local SHO responsible for implementing court’s direction on stubble burning under the supervision of DGPs and the Chief Secretary. 

Air pollution in Delhi-NCR: Supreme Court notes that a smog tower installed as per earlier order is not working, and directs the government to ensure it is repaired. 

Air pollution in Delhi-NCR: Supreme Court asks Chief Secretaries if the States to have a meeting either physically or by Zoom on the pollution issue. 

Air pollution in Delhi-NCR: Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul hearing air pollution matter observes that while travelling through Punjab over the weekend and he saw widespread fires on both sides of the road. 

Air pollution in Delhi-NCR: Supreme Court observes that schemes like odd-even for vehicles to tackle pollution issue are mere optics.

Supreme Court posts the air pollution matter for hearing on Friday, 10th November. 

Deepavali Prep

The preparations for Diwali continued unabated despite the smog ! Our condominium complex was lit up a few days before Deepavali.

I managed to put up our Diwali lights just a couple of days before Dhanteras. Shiv Kumar, our electrician had to help out as the fairy lights didn’t have a plug and one of the wires had got cut. Its so festive around this time !

Deepotsav 2023

We had plans to attend the Deepotsav this year at Ayodhya, but dropped them as we had just come back from a trip to Gujarat. And then Krishnan had to undergo the preventive health procedure, so we couldn’t travel immediately.

Once again, the Guinness Record was broken. This is the 6th Guinness World Record – there were 22,23,000 diyas lit on #Deepotsav at 51 ghats of Ayodhya, including Ram Ki Paidi. 🙏🏿 Jai Shri Ram 🙏🏿. Some pics and the video released by the UP Govt.

Deepotsav 2023 video –

Deepavali @ home

This time, I didn’t get a lot of time to make the Diwali “bhakshanam”. Courtesy OPOS and its sugar syrup hack, I made yummy Kaju Barfi and Coconut Barfi in about 30 minutes. Bought the flower garlands from the temporary store within the Condo complex. We had done a lot of the cleaning in time, so it was just decorating the apartment on the day of Diwali.

Some pics from our home –

Hope everyone had a great Deepavali and here’s wishing everyone good health and loads of wealth in the year ahead 🙏🏿.

Related posts – Silent Diwali & a Smoky NCR and Understanding Delhi’s SMOKE Season.