October is indeed a very festive time for all of India. Two holidays in the beginning of the month, one called Desra, and on October 15th - 17th, the festival called Diwali takes place (also called the Festival of Lights). Kids get 15 days out of school, working folks get the Monday following the festival off, for more time to spend with family. This time of year for Indians could be compared to our holiday season, kind of like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years all wrapped into one. Each day there is a different set of events and celebration, but the general theme is to eat as much food as you can and blow up as many firecrackers as you can. Being a lover of Independence Day myself, and things that go boom, I had to try out some of these Indian firecrackers. Now I realize why they are illegal in most states. In fact, the fireworks here would probably be illegal in all of the U.S. Even the small firecrackers are loud enough to make your heart race, and I lit a few off pretty darn close to my face. The problem is with the fuses...they burn to quick to get adequate distance, so lighting them and running away will simply not do. Ergo, I would light them in my hand and throw....as fast as I could. On one occasion, the fuse was so faulty it blew up before I could get it completely out of my hand, and I am so thankful that I still have all my fingers with no marks of any kind.
Aside from having a bit of a festival by myself, the girls and I also took a trip to Pune by bus. The bus ride takes about 4 hours, and the travel there really exasuted us, because you can't forget the auto rickshaw ride to our hostel which was the bumpiest ride I have ever been on. Our hostel was perched atop a huge hill, about 30 minutes outside the city, and gave us a grand view of the nearby scenary. After we were settled in our room, into the city we went where we spent the day walking around shopping (the girls shopped, I got a beer.) and seeing more Diwali festivities. We had lunch and dinner in the city, at Domino's Pizza and McDonald's respectively. It was great to get some food that wasn't loaded with chilis and spices, a little taste of the glory you could say, even if the burger I had at McDee's was some kind of spicy chicken thing. The fries were just like home :]
If the firecrackers I did by myself were not enough to blow out my typanic membranes, the rickshaw ride through the city at night was. As soon as it got dark, the city lit up with loud bangs and mortars in the sky; a beautiful sight but also complete chaos. A few times we actually ran over a few exploding cherry bombs. Paper schrapnel doesn't hurt, but it scares the hell out of ya, nonetheless.
let er fly,
Reid
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