Roaming Redhead: 10/23/11

Hi everyone,

You may recall last year Sandip's birthday fell near two major Hindu holidays-Dusshera and Diwali. This year his birthday was closer to Diwali, (18th was Sandip's birthday, and yesterday (the 26th) was Diwali). So last Saturday we had a party to celebrate both. In this post you will see two sets of photos-one from Dusshera (a couple of weeks ago) and the other from our party on Saturday. But before I get to that, let's get to the refreshing your memory on Dusshera and Diwali...

Dusshera and Diwali
You may remember the epic good vs. evil Hindu religious story of the Ramayana, a cornerstone of the religion. Ram (good) vs. Ravana (evil), and Sita (virtuous wife of Ram), Hanuman (warrior monkey). Ram and Sita are banished from the kingdom (Ram's kid brother Lakshman goes with them), Ravana abducts Sita, massive drama and battles ensue, Ram kills Ravana and saves Sita. Dusshera celebrates Ram's victory over Ravana, and celebrations include burning huge paper "statues" of Ravana and his brothers. Diwali is the celebration of Ram and Sita's return to their kingdom It is HUGE and there family parties, lights on all houses, and fireworks, everywhere. I think last year I called it Fourth of July meets Christmas on steroids. Still true.

Dusshera Photos

These are outside the Red Fort, and going to be burned later. The grounds host the biggest Dusshera celebration in Delhi and therefore most crazy and crowded. Lucky for us each neighborhood does something similar, so we could go somewhere with less people (less is always relative in a city of 20 million)

The fair outside the red fort.

Selling swords, masks, other things for children.

This is the scene at the Air India neighborhood, where we went to watch the celebration. No one here at around 3, but it will get crowded. It was also a 5 minute walk from our from our friends' house.

See how these eyes and other things light up. Yes-there are electronics that will be set on fire. Oh and this is Ravana. You can tell because he has several heads.

Fireworks while waiting for the main event. The announcers went on and on about Air India, the government run airline. Then they talked also about how wonderful mothers and sisters are. And then on and on about Air India again. Then finally, the recounting of the story.

Now we are talking! Fireworks set off to symbolize the downfall of Ravana's brother

All three have now perished. The crowd goes wild. It is pretty cool to see actually.

About the Diwali birthday party
No surprises here. He got presents: an underwater camera (which we already bought) and a 10 foot movie screen. The party was pretty straightforward-friends came, we ate cake, cupcakes, cookies. Everyone had too many sweets.

So Diwali + Birthday = friends over, wearing saris, eating, drinking, learning about Ramayana in a fun interactive way, and fireworks.

Oh and kids, don't do fireworks at home.