Festivities in the Air

Well, I have been lazy to write the last few weeks. Key reasons being having the flu (the cough is still bugging me) and chasing the Taiwanese Drama Serial - Autumn Concerto.

The last couple of weeks in India has been a myriad of sounds and colours. Three festivals were celebrated in the span of two months - Ganesh Chaturti, Dussehra and Diwali.

The Ganesh festival saw the whole city celebrating the birthday of Lord Ganesh (the idol that looks like an elephant) where you will see the idol being displayed everywhere. Besides having the idol in their own homes, residences and shopping areas will also display their own version. There was even one in the city where the idol was made out of biscuits. On the 11th day of the celebration, people will then bring the idols on a street procession for it to be thrown into the lake. As you can imagine how environmentally unfriendly this ritual is, people are encouraged to use environmentally friendly materials like clay for making of the idols.

Dussehra's celebrations are the mildest amongst the three. People will be giving sweets and presents to each other as a token gesture and lots of orange marigold flowers are being sold on the streets. These flowers will be used to decorate the doors of each house and also on cars. The apartment I was staying at had some block party where they played loud music till late into the night.

 

A decorated car



After Fri's experience of celebrating Diwali (or Deepavali as we know it) in India, it will no longer be remembered as just another public holiday for the hubby and myself. This is like Chinese New Year for the Indians. A few days before Diwali, you will hear kids starting to play with firecrackers downstairs.

My gosh. The first time I heard the firecrackers, I almost dropped the pot that I was holding. It was so loud and I could feel the impact even when I am on the 5th floor. Being a city dweller where firecrackers are banned and never seen (at least in my generation), I thought there were gun shots or maybe even a bomb going off! I quickly switched off the gas and walked to the balcony to see what was going on. But when I see life happening as normal on the streets with no panic, my life is also probably not under threat. :) Gradually I learnt to get used to the sound but sometimes, the loud sound of it still makes me jump.



A neighbour's house on Diwali



On Diwali itself, once the sun started to set, firecrackers and fireworks were going off every second. I am not kidding you, there was barely a 10sec period when there wasn't one going off. The hubby and myself went up to the rooftop where we could see the Hussian Sagar Lake and all around it, fireworks kept going off. It was quite a pretty sight to behold. But by around 8pm, all the noise was starting to drive us crazy, so we escaped to a hotel for dinner and also to give our ears a rest.

That night, our apartment management lit a string of firecrackers outside the apartment that was about 50m long! Our first experience with firecrackers made us understand why it is banned in our small island city. For one, it is so dangerous as everyone is doing it at the same time. You have to be very careful when going out because you do not want to be too near the crackers when they go off but when the streets are so dark, how do you really see?

Even the auto drivers slow down when driving and made sure to avoid sides of the roads where people are playing with firecrackers. On the streets the next day, it is just a huge mess from all the firecrackers the last night.

Though the Indian festivals are barely done and dusted with, people are already looking forward to the Christmas and New Year season that is not too far away. For me, I am just keeping my fingers crossed that they will not be too enthusiastic about firecrackers during the year end season.