Diwali

Diwali lights

So it's been a while since I've posted about a puja... not for lack of them here, but I thought you all back home might be tired of hearing about it. But last week was Diwali, which is the festival of lights, and it was pretty cool. (There was also a Kali puja to start things off, including bagpipes (?!?!) but that was at midnight so I missed it.) Still not entirely clear on which festival Diwali is celebrating (I think it's the triumphant return of Rama to his kingdom, but no one else seemed to know anything about that) but it is sort of like Christmas and there are lots of fireworks everywhere. So it's loud and bright and very exciting. They have lamps that they put in the doorways and shops to light up the house, and they are everywhere!! I went out with some of my Indian friends and the first order of business, of course, was to buy fireworks. Which people just set off in the street, everywhere, and some of them are pretty noisy if you are not paying attention. So the boys took over and were in charge of lighting everything (I love this picture- it is so true that boys will be boys- India, American or wherever, if there's fire, that's where they want to be!)

They had noise makers and some roman candles and such (they gave me the tame ones- only sparklers.) There were also these really cool ones that made ashen snakes as they burned, which I had never seen before so I thought they were pretty cool. Then we met up with another friend and went to his house/courtyard to sit and talk and (you guessed it) light more fireworks.There were a bunch of Indian guys just hanging around, teasing each other and, well, being boys. Every time they would light a bigger firework they would all run over and jump in the sparks. There were some little kids as well- a brother and sister who were probably about 9 and 7.

The little girl didn't stop laughing the entire time we were there- she was having the time of her life. And her brother was taking custody of all the matches and supervising the fireworks. He was pretty impressive- he could even put the lit matches in his mouth and put them out just like a real fire-eater. And once he saw my suprise, you couldn't get him to stop showing off. He even warmed up enough to me to allow me to light one of the fireworks. There was also a baby girl (still not sure who she actually belonged to) that was passed around and was absolutely adorable. It was a lot of fun to just hang out and see how Indians celebrate. I love getting to see those glimpses of Indian life, not as a tourist, but with real people, sharing in their lives.