Zeeast.......Memory of Broken Soul

Have you ever let off phatakay on Shab-e-Barat? It’s a custom that I don’t really “get”. There doesn’t seem to be even a tenuous religious connection so it must be a cultural thing but I really don’t get the point. It just seems to be a yearly assault of noise pollution by young men who have too little to amuse them, a little like the bizarre ear-splitting ritual of celebrating Independence by removing motorcycle silencers. I guess I can’t see the thrill of firecrackers because they just don’t have the “oomph” of fireworks. Perhaps the problem is that we don’t have a yearly celebration where we let off fireworks. The Americans have the Fourth of July, the English have Guy Fawkes Night, the Indians have Diwali and most of the rest of the world seems to make do with New Year’s Eve. My American cousins are guaranteed to be found at a barbeque on the Fourth of July, even if it is a fully desi affair with chicken tikka and seekh kebabs on the grill rather than ribs. Similarly, the fifth of November immediately conjures up images of Guy Fawkes Night bonfires with the smell of wet leaves burning, mingling with the smell of hot roasted chestnuts. I’m sure everyone remembers TV images of the Australians lighting up Sidney Harbour Bridge with fireworks to usher in the new millennium while everyone who’s ever been to Disneyland remembers the nightly fireworks displays there.Fireworks have style and pizzazz. At one very grand Indian wedding I went to, the Baraat went up the road to the bride’s house letting off fireworks. The bride’s side responded with a spectacular display of their own when the bride and groom put garlands around each other’s necks. It was all very Bollywood and looked fantastic. It probably also cost a fortune. I suppose it’s a good thing that there isn’t a tradition of letting off fireworks here because basically they are one of the quickest ways of burning money. Even the best display doesn’t last very long, but then it doesn’t have to because after a while the whine and *bang* gets a bit monotonous so you find yourself waiting for the big “finale”. There does, however, have to be an event of sorts backing up the firework display. The firework display may be the “piece de resistance” but there’s usually a good feast while you’re waiting.Now we Pakistanis don’t usually need an excuse to feast but as for the fireworks, I admit I can’t think of a good day for them. Eid and Chand raat have their own charms and rituals and in any case I don’t think that a religious day is the right day. Perhaps the 14th of August but that’s probably too American. Our weddings are already such riots of colour and opulence that they can really do without physical fireworks. It would be nice, however, to have day where we celebrate with sparklers, pinwheels and whooshing rockets. On the other hand, we’d probably find a load of homemade death traps on the market so maybe it’s better that “Fireworks Day” remains a dream. In the meantime, I’ll just stock up on the cotton wool and wait for the firecrackers to subside