Diwali - what a party!

OK so we don't really understand all these holidays, or the Gods that go with them, but we can appreciate the fun parts! Diwali is the Festival of Lights, and I even bought a couple strings of (Christmas) lights to decorate the house. But I couldn't compete with the Griswolds down the street!!

My friend Anita (one of the families I mentioned, who lived for years in the US and had kids born there) had the light guys come (for the price of the lights they will deliver and put them up) then she wasn't home (I think this is how the story goes) and they went a little crazy. She laughed about it too. It looked like you could land a plane over there!

Lots of other houses were lit up too, just not quite so much.

Anyway, another thing that happens for Diwali is everything gets spruced up - people buy new furniture, new drapes, new clothes (and it is expected that you will buy clothes for your maid and driver as well, altho they also like cash :) ) Even the shops down our dusty filthy road were all draped for the occasion.

You might wonder what the stacks are - those are sweets - many kinds of very sweet sweets. And yes, they are sitting out in the open air with all the dust.

There is another kind of decoration that I LOVED and will do next year when I have a clue, and that is the colored sand (sorry, don't know the technical term) that they make into such gorgeous shapes and patterns. The Diwali diya is a tiny lantern that you fill with oil and put a wick into and light. It is a theme for decorating, and all the little flames make a very pretty sight. The ones on white tile is at one of the malls here, the one on brown tile is the front step of one of the houses here. The orange flowers are always everywhere - they are very fragrant and are used in the altars and on doorways etc for worship. In the one mall shot, you can see the diyas are floating in water. I thought it was a really neat display for the mall!

The two ladies are Anita and her sister, wearing their very best saris. The sari is 6 metres of fabric that you wrap around you in a specific way. There is a short top that fits you, but all the rest is wrapped, with a certain number of pleats, etc etc. It is complicated and hard to get it right so it looks good, but when done correctly, I think they are just stunning. Anita's is tie dyed, with tiny circles in a pattern. There must be hundreds of the spots where they tied it up. Very pretty.

Another thing about Diwali is the fireworks. Oh the fireworks. It starts a few days before and goes a few days after, and the goal seems to be noise. Pretty colours and all that are nice, but really, we need big noise. Not like this is a quiet country to start with, but the booms kept us awake nights for at least a week. On the actual evening of Diwali, Anita invited us over to shoot some off with them (and she fed us this really good sweet made of ground cashews with edible silver foil - not as sweet as some, and really yummy - name is something kunj if you live near an Indian bakery and want to try some!!) and it was very similar to the Fourth of July! People up late, lots of food, friends getting together to watch the fireworks. The neighbourhood next to us had lots of really big ones and we enjoyed theirs too! There are many warnings about safety with the fireworks, and many people ignore them - a kid in our neighbourhood had to have stitches because got a bit too close or too slow. We chose to watch only, because even that was scary at times!

A few nights before Diwali, our neighborhood threw a party, with a DJ and games for the kids, and FOOD. We each paid 50 rupees (about $1.25) to attend. One of our favorite things about India is the bright and beautiful clothes, and we saw some really beautiful outfits there. This is a group of the ladies I know from Eldeco Mansionz. The other shot is of me and my Belgian friend Christelle. You will hear lots more about her!! That salwar kameez that I have on is not my fanciest one anymore (because, it is a tradition -EVERYONE gets new clothes for Diwali!!) and look at my sensible shoes!! Indian women do NOT wear sensible shoes. EVER. They are very stylish and I have hardly seen a functional, comfortable, practical pair of shoes. And I admit that I need some cuter ones to wear with salwar kameez.

There was about 15 tables of food (catered) and some of it was being prepared right there as we ate. Making the chapati bread was VERY cool (or hot, depending on if it ws your job to stick your hand into the oven!) The table was all ready with all the balls of dough, then as they were needed, the guy would slap it into a fairly flat round cake (lightning fast, it was so neat to watch) the reach into this clay furnace that had a fire in the bottom, and slap it onto the inside wall, where it stuck.

When it was done, he had two long skinny pieces of iron that he would use to reach in and get it. He was very good at his job and the chapati was SOOOOO yummy. I do love all the different varieties of flatbread. Other than the one made of lentils (need I say more?) they are all fabulous. And usually dripping with butter, which does not hurt.

This guy is making these potato things, which would be great if the stuff inside wasn't hot enough to set your insides on fire! Ok, I admit I am a complete and total spice wimp. And the fried potato thing works for me, I just eat the outsides and not the ball of spice inside :).

The other guys are frying sweets. They are fried then they sit in a bath of syrup, and they are so sweet your teeth hurt. Lots of the Indian sweets are just to sugary to eat, and I don't really care for these ones.


Also there to eat, but not photographed, was a gigantic wok of noodles (of which I should have taken a photo - he had this enormous bucket of fresh noodles that he would pull giant handfulls out and toss in this huge wok with some vegetables. They were yummy too) and lots of chafing dishes of other Indian food, that I am not familiar enough with to name, and usually can't eat anyway due to the spiciness. After we stuffed ourselves, there was talking and dancing. The dancing is done in group pretty much, with lots of famous Bollywood moves. I took these photos of the crowd because of the clothes.

The kids were off for a whole week for Diwali (pronounced "Divahlee") and the driver was gone for a couple days to see his mom. It is basically their Christmas holiday, to get together with family and give gifts. I think next year, when we have a better understanding of all this, we will have even more fun, but it was a pretty good time anyway.