Happy Diwali!!! (Nov 1)

Today is Diwali.
Everyone gets ready. There is no school, the house is cleaned top to bottom, fresh paint for all the walls, fresh garlands of marigolds strung over all the doors (did I mention how big the marigolds grow here?).
The excitement is pretty high as, from what I gather, this is their biggest festival of the year. We read in one of the guidebooks that it is tradition to give sweets so Brad decided to head into Jari to get some supplies while I just hung out. Keshau had headed to Malana for business the previous night and wasn't expected until later in the day so Brad could sneak into town, get some supplies and sneak back before anyone was the wiser.

Half hour hike down, 15 minute wait for the bus, 15 minutes on the bus and Brad was in town. The town was busier than usual with preparations and last minute shopping for Diwali. Brad wandered around and checked out all the shops and the rest of the town. He even checked out the hospital in case he decided I needed more attention. Fireworks are another feature of Diwali and they were being shot off regularly all day. Brad bought us some snacks and supplies along with an extra treat - potatoes! (I had been craving a baked potato)
He also bought chocolate for the kids, a kilo of these honey spiral fried pastry things that would rival Krispy Kreme and some whiskey for Keshau... oh... and some fireworks of course! He also enjoyed a leisurely tea while he waited for the bus back to the path. On the bus Brad was busted by Keshau's son who had also gone into town to get some supplies. They rode back together and Brad, who was looking forward to a leisurely hike back up to the house ended up with a brisk, breathtaking climb.

When he got back with all the goodies, Brad got the fire going and I roasted the potatoes in the wood stove. Alas, my timing was off and I couldn't enjoy them (I had to take my medicine on an empty stomach). Ah well, homefries for breakfast then!

We headed down to the main house for the celebration. Everything was freshly painted and there were symbols on the floor at all the doorways in red sand. We sat in the living room and watched all the action while we snacked on the fried sweets. There was music playing and much running around - it was very festive. Since it is the festival of lights, the son at one point plugged in this string of Xmas-like lights that flashed off and on. It turned out that they were not Xmas-like lights, they were actual Xmas lights since they played that annoying electronic music... and it was Santa Claus is Coming to Town - it was a bit surreal really.

The colour for Diwali is red. They tied red yarn around our wrists and one of the little boys smudged red on our foreheads. They put on a DVD for us to watch some of the traditional dance as well. (Seems to be mostly hand movements).

At some point they told us it was time to go outside. Time for fireworks! They had bags of them, along with the ones that Brad bought. Brad almost got his hand blown off twice - some of the fuses are really short - and it took a couple of days for the hearing to come back in his right ear. The kids thought it was hilarious (of course). I have to say, it was really fun.



After we had finished blowing stuff up, off to the kitchen for dinner. Chicken, rice, dahl, chapati, and some sort of sweet corn meal honey concoction for dessert.

After dinner we were enjoying tea with three of the women - practicing our Hindi. We started to explain how a western wedding ceremony worked with the exchange of rings and the kiss at the end. There is no public kissing between the sexes in India so when we kissed it caused some blushing and a fit of giggles.

It was a very full day so after tea and some photos (the kids love the digital camera) it was off to bed.