The market for fireworks is growing, but what about the environment?

In the distance, fireworks were sparking and popping, illuminating the sky for miles. It's when a loud boom echoes throughout the neighborhood. For many people, it’s just another Fourth of July celebration . . . but for others, it's pure terror. Dogs whine. Cats hide beneath the bed. Birds get disoriented and frightened. Even some people have severe phobias of loud noises or fireworks. The firework market, however, is growing. In 2020, the global fireworks market was valued at USD 2,481.6 million and is expected to reach USD 3,243.8 million by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 3.9%.

Three essential elements require for a firework: an oxidizer, a fuel, and a chemical mixture to generate the color and sound. Roger Bacon discovered this in the early 1200s. Interestingly, Bacon kept his discoveries hidden, penning them in code to keep them out of the wrong hands. The aerial shell as we know it today was invented in the 1830s by Italian pyrotechnicians.

As firecrackers ignite, their electrons become excited and emit light. Different compounds burn at various light wavelengths. Deep red colors are produced by strontium and lithium compounds, blue colors by copper, silver or white colors by magnesium and titanium, orange colors by calcium, yellow fireworks by sodium, and green colors by barium.

Because of the composition of fireworks, it is understandable that they can have a detrimental effect on the environment. Heavy metals, dioxins, perchlorates, and other air pollutants, which have catastrophic health impacts in high concentrations, are released into the atmosphere when fireworks are set off.

A group at the Pyrotechnics Technology and Prototyping Division of the United States Army aims to design more environmentally friendly flares for military use. It would also be possible to use the technology for civilian fireworks. There is, however, a challenge in making eco-friendly items affordable.

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This Poila Baishakh I Took A Trip Down The Memory Lane

In the Poila Baishakh, it used to be very hot. This day is mainly for traders. New accounting books are introduced in the store. In Bengali, we call it 'Hal-khata'. Bengalis used to go to the shops on that day and eat sweets after paying their dues.

I used to go out in the evening with Maa, sporting a new dress. The shops in the neighborhood used to embellish with flowers. Monetary transactions were not that big on that day. The real purpose was to build customer relationships. When we were young, our eyes had been fixed on the sweet packets and the soft drink bottles. The store that offered cold soft drinks used to be more crowded. On other days of the year, children do not have much choice to drink soft drinks.

Shopkeepers used to hand out packets of sweets and a calendar. If you shake the packet in your hand, you can get a guess. Laddu and Namkeen have been very common. I used to bring all the packets home. At home, we had no refrigerator at that time. We used to eat as many sweets as possible before it gets sour. Maa used to cook, special dishes that day, sukto, spicy fish kalia, lau chingri, mutton kosha, and so on. In our Bengali kitchen, the chicken was not allowed.

Nowadays Poila Baishakh and Hal-khata have lost their sheen. No one takes a loan from shops, everyone has credit cards. Cooking at home is also not so common during festive days. Bengalis now visit restaurants for 'bangaliana' or order traditional Bengali platter thru food-delivery apps. This is a strange situation! Now we want to decorate our rooms like posh restaurants. But visit restaurants and request homely meals and comfort. In traditional festivals like Poila Baisakh, the contrast between these desires is even more noticeable.

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My first Halloween in United States

Halloween is one of those festivals that we do not celebrate in India at all. Since the time I came to know that I will be in U.S. this year during Halloween, I was super excited about it. In the world could be the best place to celebrate Halloween other than United States!

I visited Princeton, NJ last October to have an onsite business strategy discussion with one of our Costume retailer client. It was even more exciting to experience the crazy celebration from inside of the industry.

We had several strategic sessions on discussing latest movie releases, evergreen themes, last year's top seller. We were predicting people's purchases intent for the upcoming Halloween and strategizing our ecommerce costume retail business to win it.

On the personal side, I had to buy a super cool costume for the celebration. I felt like a little child about to experience his first ever Halloween. Soon my US colleagues and friends started discussing Halloween parties and costumes. Neighborhood door fronts were being decorated with carved pumpkins. Stores windows started displaying Halloween decorations. We bought some spooky cutouts and artificial spider's web and decorated our office.

I started my search for a perfect costume. In US, people dress up as everything and anything, from scary devil to superheroes, or funny giant burgers. I consulted with my costumes retailer client. Among the endless options that was offered to me, I decided to dress up as the person I wanted to be from my childhood.. an airlines captain. I placed the order online at a 'special' discount that was offered by our client.

The day has arrived!

I dressed up as 'airlines captain', feeling bit uncomfortable to walk in public in my costume. The moment I stepped outside, I realized and felt relieved seeing all costumed people roaming, driving very casually on the road.

We had a Halloween celebration and potluck lunch planned in our US office for the day. I entered the office that day accompanied by two of my dearest colleagues.. a NYPD cop and Batman. My eyes was not believing what I was seeing. It was crazy. My colleagues were already, truly into the characters.. we were greeted by Roman soldier, deer, duck, giant beer and many more. Our NYPD cop meanwhile was having a friendly chitchat with our Pirate friend.. this was hilarious.

The potluck lunch was equally thrilling. We have our colleagues from different countries.. the lunch table was reflecting the origin. It was an explosion of tastes, and flavors. I brought some Uthhapam.

In the evening neighbors children flooding the street knocking the house's doors in their cute costume for a trick or a treat.

Overall 2017 Halloween was an exciting, wonderful experience of following the yearly tradition.

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New Year's resolutions 2018 that I must keep

Now that we have fresh 364 days in stock, I thought to make some new year resolutions. Let us list down my aspirations from the year 2018.

Resolution-1: Writing a blog post every day. Ever since I learned about blogging, I thought of writing one of mine. I started several times in past years but it was hard to continue. Before I take it as a new year resolutions once again, I had to identify what stopping me from writing. I spent most of my time in 2017 honoring family commitments, staying late at work, and browsing social media.

So here come two more resolutions to remain true to my resolution-1. My office hours are usually long, at a mid-senior management position there are several responsibilities and ownership that demand extra time commitments. The work however satisfying, but ate up my family time. The family commitments understandably then ate my personal time. Resolution-2: Finish work and leave office on time, and do not carry the baggage home.

Social media did not consume much of my time, primarily because I didn't had much 'free' time in 2017. However, social media and all associated mobile notifications are distracting. I am guilty of checking Facebook, Whatsapp in the middle of work, triggered from mobile notifications. Social media are like drugs. Resolution-3: Limit social media screen time and disable app notifications.

Now that I hope to save some time this year. I hope to revive an old 'good' habit - reading books. It was painful when I received my goodreads year end notification that I did not read a single book in the year 2017. So here come Resolution-4: Read at least a few pages of a book everyday at bedtime. Some goal should be quantifiable. I pledged to read 12 by the end of the year 2018. Here is my goodreads reading challenge log.

Other smaller resolutions that I inherited from 2017 are waking up early, morning meditation, stretch yoga, and sleep for at least 7 hours.

This New Year I strive to be a better Me. What goals are you setting this year?

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365 days of blogging self-challenge

Happy New Year!

I was thinking about taking blogging challenge last few months. Finally, I am starting it as my New Year resolution.

In our busy life continuity is a problem, but I pledge myself that I will write at least a few lines every day and hit the 'post' button. I don't have any curated list..

Well, my kid jumped in to say 'Good morning' and snatched my mobile for few minutes that I was using to write this post. So, I need to wrap up early than I thought. This is me, and welcome to my life!

Wish you have an amazing New Year 2018... bye for now.

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What We Learn When We Embrace The Wait

Let us face the truth, we do not like to wait. Our society has shaped us to expect immediate gratification. With technologies like telephone, microwave, refrigerator, airplanes we have now extended reach, many things are now in our fingertips. In this modern age of convenience, when we are forced to wait, we became impatient. We are living in a philosophy of “I want it now!”. But we should understand, waiting is a vital element of life. Everyday in some form we wait. We wait at the line of Supermarket, at rush hour traffic or simply at a line for morning cup of coffee.

There are other forms of wait, a bit serious and longer than regular wait that we just mentioned. May be you are without job waiting for a new opportunity, May be you are not well and waiting for your health to improve or may be you are looking for the Mr. or Miss right to spend a meaningful life. In these wait as we are more vulnerable, we often become anxious, fearful, frustrated if the waiting is longer than we expect.  But the suffering does not come from the waiting itself, the suffering is caused by our expectations.

Waiting and Expectation are like strands of a rope wound together

When you are waiting for a job you expect that your qualification will match with the requirements and you will be offered an opportunity. When you are ill, you are trusting and expecting the medicine to work. When you are waiting for the Mr. or Miss right, you are hoping to secure a place in their heart. We are like the night guards waiting for the day to break, darkness to be replaced by the light of a new dawn.

Waiting is not about doing nothing. Waiting is not resting. Waiting is an action. Waiting is the time to slow down, introspect ourselves, experience the call of life. Do I have right qualification? are my skill-sets up to date?, is my lifestyle taking a toll on health? Sometime we need to let go. It is important to clean out old emotional baggage time to time and make room for the new. There are some days when it is harder to be patient. Reach out to a mentor at that time. You are not alone in the waiting.

Waiting is the time for learning thyselves. It is actually the time for growth. But this growth happens so slowly over time that we often don’t see it happening. People who stayed patient and has crossed such phase often heard from others that they have changed. We found ourselves on different plane, more evolved, mature and insightful. We can not evolve without going on a journey from point A to point B. There is a space in between those two points, where we grow. Some call it fruits of faith. God heals us, comfort us, listen to our prayers, empower us, strengthen us and eventually help us grow.

Next time when it comes to waiting, do not try to delay it. Embrace it. Patiently wait as your journey for growth is about to start. Remember the farmers how they wait for the autumn and spring rains for the lands to yield its crop.

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5 Little Habit That Will Bring Positive Change In Your Life

People often ask what are that one or two habit that can change their life. The question is not easy. There are numerous habit we are actually following in our everyday life. The time you wake up, the food you take in your breakfast, the way you dress each of them are a habit. It depends from person to person to understand what habit they need to change and what habit they actually need to keep in their life. A life coach can actually plan you day and help you understand what habit building program you should follow.

If I could just pick five basic habit that could bring positive change in your life, here are those. These are very basic irrespective of your lifestyle. May be you are already following a few of it. If not, start it immediately – in a few months you will notice the change. Before I begin with, it is important that I share the golden rules of habit building.

• Do a 30-days challenge, one habit at a time
• Maintain a habit journal, write your motivation, obstacles, and your plan to overcome them
• Log your progress, have some peer group who can encourage you and share your progress with them.
• Plan some milestone, treat yourself for every little success you achieve.

The Five Habits That Can Change Your Life

Okay, now you know the basic of how to build a habit. I will write more about building habit in a separate post. Here are the five little habits in order of my preference.

1. Get Up Early

Do you like to waking up early? Then you are already in right path. If you are not, you should start earning the benefits of waking up early. By walking up early you can take control of your day. Early morning are the best productive time of the day. Also you can have a proper time for breakfast, exercise and best options for your commute. The traffic is much lighter during morning, so you get to work faster, save yourself more time.

2. Meditate

As you wake up early, its important to meditate. Maditation reduce stress, improve concentration, help you work faster and error free throughout the day, hence increase happiness. Meditation does not always means that you need to set out specific time for that. Meditation can be done in smaller chunk whenever you feel burdend. If you are just preparing the tea, inhale the aroma, wait for a minute, close your eye and do not think anything in this one minute. You will feel relaxed. You can even do it sitting at your office just for one – two minutes at a time. Stop thinking and just relax.

3. Shut off your electronics one hour a day

We have now so many electronics devices in our life that it almost started  controlling you on their beeps. The microwave beeps you rush to your kitchen, the cell phone notification beeps your open your phone. The email to the seat-belt warning of your car all beeps are vying for your attention. But your family? are you spending enough quality time with them? Take your kid to the nearest park or just sit in the backyard enjoy the nature listen to them. Hold your wife’s had and communicate. Visit your parents talk to them. Just one hour a day stay away from electronics. Soaked into the moment and resist if reflectively your hand reaching the cell phone to take photos. Just create a little private memory for you one hour everyday.

4. Read More

Reading help you in problem solving, cultivating new interests, expose you to a different ways of thinking. Everything you read fills your head with information. The more knowledge you have the better-equipped you are. In our internet crazed world our mind is always moving multi-direction as we multitask. Long hour multitasking increase stress and lowers your concentration, productivity. In your work hour if you feel tired, take 15 – 20 minutes of break. Read a book (a physical one) and you will be surprised how much more focused your are as you back to your work after this 15 minus of book reading exercise. Try to do it every two hours to be always at the pick of your productivity.

5. Maintain a Daily Routine

Many time probably you thought about the pending tasks from yesterday. This happens if you do not have a routine. Routine is not to make you mechanized, its a way to set a limit, you have only 24 hours a day. Break your day in multiple small goals from your waking up to the time to go to sleep. Some entries in your Daily routine can be as silly and obvious as brushing teeth, floss etc. Its important to tick them off that increase your confidence and help complete the other important tasks in time. The secret is to be specific. Broad goals in Daily Routine are counter productive, always answer how. “I will read newspaper for 20 mins today” is a broad goal, you may not be able to find that 20 free minutes, but a  goal like “I will read newspaper for 20 mins during my 30 mins commute to my workplace in public transport” is much more achievable.

The right habits can make your day successful, every day. Every hours of our life is precious and we should handle it such a way that we can always get the most out of it.

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