From Sivakasi to Aminabad: how our cartons reach the shop

Almost every cracker sold in India is made in and around Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu, about 2,000 kilometres from Lucknow. Our stock makes that journey once in August and once in late September, and the way it travels decides how well it lights in your courtyard.

Rizwan places our main order in June, after tasting the new season’s samples sent from the makers we have bought from for years. Production runs through the summer, and the cartons are packed in corrugated boxes lined with paper. They travel by road in covered lorries through Madurai, Nagpur and Jhansi, a journey of five to six days. Crackers are not allowed on passenger trains or in courier parcels, so road transport is the only way.

When the lorry reaches the transport yard near Charbagh, our own small truck brings the cartons to our godown behind Latouche Road. Here they are unloaded by hand, never thrown, and stacked on wooden pallets off the floor, away from walls, in a dry room with no electric fittings inside.

Then comes the slow part. Rizwan and Nusrat open sample boxes from every carton, check that fuses are intact, that nothing is damp or crushed and that the labels match the contents. Any carton with a damp corner is set aside. It takes about two weeks. When you buy a box from us, it has already been opened and closed once, by someone who knew what to look for.