The lonely planet guide described Diwali as
India’s prettiest festival, it didn’t say that we would feel like we are living
in a warzone surrounded by enough explosives to destroy the United
Kingdom. There are constantly fireworks
going off. Big massive bangs and these
other ones that sound like a machine gun.
And they just let them off on the ground so there are little sticks of
dynamite littered all over the ground.
I’m concerned that we are going to be accidental victims of a car bomb
at some point. Also, Valdus has a toy
gun that has some kind of thing in it that makes it go bang, let of some smoke
and spark a bit. Which he has developed
a habit of pointing at my face.
The kids at school were really excited in
the run up to Diwali. They kept shaking
our hands saying Happy Diwali, singing a Diwali song (I have no idea what the
words were), and just generally not sitting down at all. Or shutting up. It is a really big thing here, it’s like
Christmas! The past two days everyone
has been wearing their best clothes and they’re all dressed up so nicely. Everybody visits and stays with family it
seems, even here in a Christian house, all the family were here. Although I think that’s nothing to do with
Diwali, they just like to gather.
Diwali is the Hindu festival of light. They light the candles to lead Lord Rama home
from exile. I really need to find out
more about the country I’m living in because I am getting all my information
from Sarah… And they do light up everything.
They have fairy lights around their windows (it’s a good thing I’m not epileptic),
candles around their doors and patios and have oil candles as well. It’s really lovely. They also eat a lot. We were invited round to someone’s house for
some lunch, and we were fed loads.
Chapattis, rice, a variety of curries, pompadoms, and some other carby
lovely spicy thing. And sweets. Lots of sweets. And the sweets here are nothing like what we
get back home. They are also very very
sweet. A lot sweeter than we’re used
to! Although we have been giving
something that is pretty much the exact same thing as tablet and we were told
it was an Indian sweet made in Mysore.. It was Tablet. We
went round to their house again for dinner and were fed even more sweets. It is just like Christmas but with two
massive meals instead of one. But it was
all amazing, and the people are so lovely.
They always talk to us and make us feel at home. Although constantly being asked “are you
feeling happy?” is really weird because I’m now starting to doubt myself. Like I thought I was happy but now that I’m
being asked I’m not so sure..
But the best thing about Diwali I’ve found
is lighting crackers. Or
fireworks. I’m really not sure what the official term
is. They light them on the ground as
well. Making them even more
dangerous. They spark and fizz and
generally look like they’re going to set things on fire. Especially where we were setting them off on
Diwali because it was right underneath a power line surrounded by trees and
bushes. And little explosives that you
light and chuck. The variety of
fireworks here are amazing. There are
ones that just make a bang, in a variety of volumes, it really is a good thing
that the buildings are structurally sound because some of these bangs as so big
that they actually create little craters in the ground. There are also really sparky ones that whirl
on the ground like Catherine wheels and risk setting saris and trousers on fire
and ones that also go flying forward on the ground so quickly that I’m
concerned they might change direction and take my eye out. But they’re all amazing. And I got to light a few as well. It also trained me to back away quickly from
something that could set you on fire.
Now I’m very good at it. I got
to light a rocket which was quite exciting!
It maybe wasn’t as big as some of the rockets you get back home but I
can confirm that the fuse was a lot shorter.
The last firework that the family pulled out was some kind of terrifying
looking rolled up thing that said “600 rounds!!” on it. They then rolled it along the pathway in
their garden (under power lines, beside trees) and we got to see it. It was basically a roll of dynamite looking
things about a metre long. It was
amazing. And then, they handed me the
matches. It was actually like Christmas
had come early. I was just to light the
paper because it looked like the fuse was too short to allow me to get a distance
away in time. So I just lit the paper
and backed away from the possible bomb.
It was actually like a machine gun was going off right behind my
ear. And it was really bright as
well. I’m going to invest in more
fireworks at home because it was fabulous.
I love Diwali. Lots of fire and light all the time. And everyone was so dressed up all the time,
in their Sunday best. I made the mistake
of, in the evening, just thinking we were just going to do some fireworks so I
didn’t dress up in the slightest. I
looked quite scruffy. And everyone else
looked amazing. So I’ll know for next
time. Saris are still acceptable for
setting fire to things.
No comments:
Post a Comment