New Delhi: As Delhi’s air got thicker around midnight on Diwali, within a span of ten minutes, four families rush into the emergency unit of AIIMS Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre consecutively, saying that their loved ones were hurt by crackers. A woman in a sequinned kurti was wheeled in with gauze over her eye, almost passing out from the pain, a man carried his four-year-old child crying due to an eye injury, a teenager’s jeans were torn and covered in blood because of a bomb that burst unexpectedly, while another teenager had a burn in his hand.This year, the Supreme Court permitted green firecrackers between 6-7 am and 8-10 pm on November 7 and 8. But on Sunday, the incessant clatter of fireworks continued well after 10 pm, even in the vicinity of hospitals. A few hundred metres away from the hospital, at Humayunpur, groups of young men threw ‘sutli’ bombs right in front of women as they walked, some even on moving vehicles.At the hospital, the severity of the injury determined whether the patient would be sent to the ‘red zone’, ‘yellow zone’ or the ‘green zone’ of the emergency ward. Inside, the sound of security guards’ whistles to control crowds, merged with the loud explosions outside. According to data shared by the hospital on Monday, the Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Burns Surgery recorded 42 Diwali-related burn cases. The patients included an eight-year-old child critical with 45% burn surface area. A total of six children below ten years were among the 42 burn victims. Twelve burn victims were aged between 10-18 years, and 22 were in the age group of 18-60 years, as per the data. Only one was considered critical and admitted, while the others were treated on the spot. Five underwent operations.Among those aged 10-18, anars were listed as the most common cause, and among the 18-60 group, hand burns were the most common. The hospital added that several patients with eye injuries may have been presented directly to Dr. Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences (RPCOS). After 11 pm, there was an influx of patients at RPCOS, many of them children crying from pain. The Delhi government does not publicly share any consolidated figures on firework injuries.The hospital said that RPCOS received 110 patients on Diwali night and early hours of the next day in eye casualty services, with a majority of patients suffering from firecracker injuries. Eighteen patients had corneal perforations and lacerations and underwent surgical intervention. Twenty more surgeries have been scheduled, and 72 patients had non-sight-threatening injuries. A majority of the patients were children and young adults, the hospital said.‘Children get excited, hard to say no to crackers’Sonu Ram, 35, a resident of Delhi’s Chhatarpur, brought his 12-year-old nephew to AIIMS after a head and eye injury from a ‘skyshot’, an aerial firework that bursts into the sky with colourful sparkles and sound. “Diwali should be about diyas and lights, not big, loud firecrackers which lead to injuries and pollution. But the children do not listen, especially when all their friends are bursting crackers,” Ram said.His nephew says that he tried to run in the other direction, but the sparks hit him. The children were bursting firecrackers on an empty plot in the neighbourhood.Two brothers from Panchsheel Park said that they burst fireworks only “for the children”. The elder brother, aged 38, who wished to stay anonymous, said, “My son wanted to burst crackers and we thought we should supervise.” But while supervising the children, he himself received a minor injury. “I was looking up after bursting a skyshot, and the debris ended up entering my eye,” he said.AIIMS Trauma Centre on Sunday night. Photo: Ashna Butani.His younger brother, aged 33, recalled that when he was a child, he had ended up with a burn on his hand on Diwali. He said, “The government should completely ban fireworks. They are giving us a window to burst them, and children get excited, so it becomes difficult to say no.”The injury was tragic for Abhinav Raj, 15, who stepped out of his house only to buy items for the family’s ‘pooja’ around 8.30 pm in Fatehpur Beri, but was hit by a firework that he says came from the terrace of another building. “We do not let the children burst fireworks. I had asked him to go to the store and come straight home,” said his mother. “When we reached the eye hospital, it was empty. Now, there is no space to sit because everyone entering the hospital is coming in with an eye injury,” she added.Another family rushed out of RPCOS, saying the queues were long and it would take a while for doctors to treat their son; hence, they were heading to another hospital. Traveling from Faridabad, a family reached AIIMS for treatment of a 17-year-old boy at 11 pm. His uncle, Kamal Saini, a property dealer, said that Diwali, as he remembers it, was never about firecrackers growing up. “We used to have smaller firecrackers, like charkhi and phuljhari. This would make both children and adults happy.” Later on, Saini found out that the fireworks that injured his nephew were not green fireworks, and were purchased by neighbours. “The green fireworks are nowhere to be seen in the markets”.Six-year-old undergoes eye surgeryRamsevak, an Agra-based vendor, got on the train to reach AIIMS with his 6-year-old son on the night of November 8. He said his son cried throughout the journey after his left eye was injured from a ‘bullet bomb’. “Today, the doctors conducted the operation from 5-8 pm. His eye is bandaged, and we do not know if he will be able to see from his left eye as yet but are hopeful of recovery.” The incident took place on Chhoti Diwali in Agra around 6 pm. He said, “My family is against firecrackers. I was around when he got injured. At least ten children were playing, and my son was just standing near the door when it happened.” He says that ‘patthar’ or debris from the bomb entered his son’s eye and damaged the sclera. An ambulance driver outside the hospitals lights a candle atop the ambulance in the evening, adding that he anticipated a long night. Photo: Ashna Butani.A nurse at AIIMS, who wished to stay anonymous, said, “The problem is that many fireworks are not of standard quality, as there is no clear measurement of how much material is packed in. Some burst immediately, and some are delayed. Because the person’s face is close to the cracker while burning them, when it blasts unpredictably, the particles usually enter the eyes.” The nurse adds that almost every year, burns and eye injuries are the most common cases, and the exact number of patients coming in can also depend on how strong police patrolling on the streets is, in the given year. Inside Safardjung Hospital, small candles were lit to spread festive cheer among patients and printouts reading ‘Happy Diwali’ were stuck on the doors of the hospital rooms. Doctors said that apart from burns cases, another common complaint is elderly people experiencing breathlessness on Diwali night. Outside the hospitals, vendors lit diyas in their stalls, while an ambulance driver lit a candle atop the ambulance in the evening, saying that he anticipated a long night. A woman vendor in her 60s bursts smaller bombs. I asked her why she was bursting them in front of the hospital. “The only reason I am bursting them is that my grandson brought them from the market with love and said ‘Naani, aap hi jalana’ (grandmother, you should be the one bursting them),” she told me, while Ram’s 12-year-old nephew came out of the hospital with more than scars, medicine prescriptions and a follow-up date. He had a resolution: “I don’t want to burst fireworks next time.” Ashna Butani is an independent journalist.