Last Thursday and Friday, India found herself celebrating Diwali.
Diwali is the Hindu “Festival of Lights”. Candles and lamps are lit the world over to celebrate the victory of brightness over darkness within ourselves. It is a time for new beginnings, a time to ward out internal evils and find instead an inner, peaceful good.
It is also a time, it seems, to scare the bejibbers out of expats.
I was awoken on Thursday morning at 6:00am. Boom, boom, BOOM! I jumped. There’s a bomb attack! … I still haven’t registered with the British Consulate … Chennai is under siege … I’ll never be found … b*gger, b*gger, b*gger …
I looked outside. I couldn’t see anything, but I could still hear explosions. Sweet Olga was sleeping peacefully. I ran to Berat and Pasha’s room – Pasha was not there, Berat, too, was away with the fairies. BOOM! Another one. Neither of them stirred.
Was I going crazy? How could they not hear? Should I stay inside: but I have to go to work, I am the only one on my shift! Oh: I will call them. But no, my phone was stolen, I don’t have a new sim card yet … b*gger, b*gger, b*gger …
Olga awoke.
Me: “Olga! What is the noise, what’s going on!”
Olga: “Uh … it’s the crackers … the fire crackers … Diwali …”
Crackers. No, they cannot be crackers. Crackers make a gentle tinker-boom and release pretty lights into the sky. Olga assured me that I was not going to die, and that I should just walk to work. In the end I did, and was assured, by evil, laughing colleagues, that they were indeed just crackers.
It seems that this is how Diwali is celebrated in India. Home made explosives, set off not by big men with big gloves behind big fences, but by teenagers in the street. I praise the Lord that I escaped the festival unscathed. (Burns admitted to hospital triple in India during Diwali!)
Relief only came on my weekend flight to Hyderabad. We took off in darkness, and a silence descended over the aircraft. It was black outside, and I finally saw the pretty lights, as real fireworks illuminated Chennai’s (smoggy) dusk.
I had found my inner peace.
hehehe…
Deepawali is like that only… its actually a festival of lights, however in the years it has moved to being a festival of lights and sounds.. with crackers, all sorts of them and super duper lights all around…
its lovely…
but lately the focus has been on reducing the number of crackers, and the kids only are helping this initiative… getting back to celebrating it with lights and love…
how is india treating you otherwise?
Where are you on Christmas? India or London?
did you read about the story that says that the air pollution in mumbai goes up by 55% during the diwali days? That along with all the fat and sugar in the body through sweets is just what the ER ordered, isn’t it?
cheers.
hahaha thats hilarious although im glad to hear you didnt get burned! in American news…the Naval Academy defeated Notre Dame and we’re invited to compete in the Poinsetta Bowl in San Diego over christmas break…and they’re paying for us to attend. isn’t that just lovely?
Stay safe Sam 😉
eric