How a new item gets onto our list: the backyard test

Each August, samples of new items arrive from Sivakasi, usually forty or fifty of them. Before any goes on our price list, Ravi lights them in the backyard at home, one by one, with Sujatha writing notes and our two daughters watching from the steps. If the girls cover their ears, the item is out.

We test each sample at least three times, from three different cartons. For sparklers we time the burn with a phone and check that the wire stays cool enough at the handle end and the sparks do not jump past arm’s length. For flower pots and chakkars we measure the height or spread with a tape, check that they light within two seconds of the wick catching, and note any that burst or tip over. A chakkar that runs off the floor towards the steps fails at once.

We also listen. Each item is marked soft, crackling or loud, and we compare it with a pressure cooker whistle three metres away, which is about as loud as we want a family item to be. Anything louder goes in the clearly marked loud section or does not go on the list at all. Smoke matters too; items that leave the yard foggy for minutes are dropped.

Out of fifty samples, usually twelve to fifteen make it. That is why our list is shorter than most shops’, and why the burn times and noise levels written on our boxes are numbers we measured ourselves, not ones copied from a catalogue.