In Bangalore, crackers can only be sold in stalls set up in designated open spaces. A playground in Jayanagar, for instance, is where much of south Bangalore goes to buy its fireworks.

This year's Deepavali has been relatively quiet. At least in my neighbourhood, people have been restrained in their celebrations.

If you aren't bursting crackers, the sound and the smoke can drive you crazy. It is especially bad for very young children and the elderly. Are people gradually moving away from noisy crackers? I suspect they are.

Our features editor Kavitha and photographer Vinod Kumar drove up to Hosur, about an hour and a half from Bangalore, to check out the Deepavali scene there.

Some trivia for your delectation:

Shops offer an unbelievable 95 per cent off. So if you buy crackers worth Rs 1 lakh, you only pay Rs 5,000!

The shopkeepers do business in Tamil and Kannada. No taxes, no VAT. You'll save a fortune by not buying in Bangalore. Works out even better if you car-pool and make the trip with friends.

Child labour is supposedly abolished, but you'll see lungi-clad young boys escorting you to the stalls and helping in the sales. They run out to the highway to light 10,000-walas between customers. That's hazardous, considering the speed at which vehicles zip past on the Bangalore-Chennai highway, but the shopkeepers say the boys are quick and agile, and the sound helps bring business.

If you're wondering how Hosur can sell crackers so cheap, it's because that city and Sivakasi, where crackers are manufactured, are both in Tamil Nadu, and the traders save on taxes, transport and other inter-state expenses.