Diwali - Festival of Lights and Kalyan's birthday

Friday, 5th of November 2010

Had a leisurely late start into the day today. Cold shower, yummy breakfast with idlies and spicy peanut chutney, work on the computer, more food, more work.

Now it's evening and the sound of crackers bursting has been an accompanying sound since last night. "Diwali, popularly known as the festival of lights, is an important five-day festival in Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and occurring between mid-October and mid-November. For Hindus, Diwali is the most important festival of the year and is celebrated in families by performing traditional activities together in their homes." I educate myself on Wikipedia. It seems to me that these traditional activities in the homes are very similar to the ones we know in the West for our New Year. Crackers are bursting (and littering the streets afterwards), all sorts of fireworks are being burnt (you wouldn't believe the number of roadside stalls just solely for selling these) and candles are lighting up the houses and their entries (that's the part I like best, personally). And in fact, many Indian businesses start their business year on Diwali.

Kalyan's mom and grandma invited me to light the small clay lamps filled with oil, which I really enjoyed. As Diwali also happens to be the day on which Kalyan was born. So we squeezed in some birthday time too and drove out of town - literally to 'the end of the road' where a residential area with high-rises is to be constructed one day. The houses are still missing but a beautiful, smooth and pitch-black road is there already. It ends near a small cliff, which you'd think would be marked. Well, we are in 'incredible India' after all, so it's not marked but fortunately Kalyan knew that already from his first visit there. So, we sat there 'at the end of the road' looking at the super long trains passing by, the fireworks in the city and the frogs provided the background music.

All in all a very relaxed day but I missed the huzzle & buzzle of the kids roaming around the village already. Happy that we'll be back there tomorrow after visiting some surrounding Panchayats (village councils) to talk about  ProtoVillage.