Diwali is the famous Indian Festival of lights.
For the past week the kids have been getting very excited for Diwali, or as it's called here "Deepavali". Their excitement reached new levels on Friday when my hand nearly fell off from being shaken so much while being wished a "Happy Diwali".
Friday's lessons involved discussing Diwali, why it's celebrated, what happens etc. This topic was linked to Thursday's Halloween celebrations (Anna's idea, credit where it's due!) involving my 1st class decorating masks, Halloween "trick or treat" games and giving out sweets at dinner. Diwali and Halloween both involve scaring away evil entities, Halloween using costumes and Diwali by using lights and firecrackers. Interesting parallel.
Anna and I (to the disappointment of the kids - so sweet) Were spending Diwali away from Devnar. We'd been invited along with the other Hyderabadi girls who work at LV Prasad eye hospital to our Country Representative's house.
After not having much contact with them, busy for a while! I was excited to have a chance to see them again.
Our hosts were very hospitable. Bharavi's wife Sugathi is an amazing cook! We all stuffed ourselves with the delicious meals.
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The day was spent watching a Bollywood movie, "Jab We Met". I say all day because Bollywood films are seriously long! But it was a great watch, really surprising and funny. Set in some beautiful locations too. Just grateful for the subtitles!
After the film we went for a walk. It was a nice quiet walk around the block punctuated by the loud bangs of firecrackers and dodging explosives!
We snacked on some tasty street food, battered aubergine! (yep, I willingly ate aubergine... India has changed me!)
We then visited a temple.
That night we watched the fireworks from the balcony. It was such a great view, I'm still in awe of how huge Hyderabad is!
Bharavi mentioned that all the flats in the foreground only appeared over the past 5-6 years! Amazing rate of growth in this city!
Not much sleep happened that night, far to much to talk about.
For the past week the kids have been getting very excited for Diwali, or as it's called here "Deepavali". Their excitement reached new levels on Friday when my hand nearly fell off from being shaken so much while being wished a "Happy Diwali".
Friday's lessons involved discussing Diwali, why it's celebrated, what happens etc. This topic was linked to Thursday's Halloween celebrations (Anna's idea, credit where it's due!) involving my 1st class decorating masks, Halloween "trick or treat" games and giving out sweets at dinner. Diwali and Halloween both involve scaring away evil entities, Halloween using costumes and Diwali by using lights and firecrackers. Interesting parallel.
Anna and I (to the disappointment of the kids - so sweet) Were spending Diwali away from Devnar. We'd been invited along with the other Hyderabadi girls who work at LV Prasad eye hospital to our Country Representative's house.
After not having much contact with them, busy for a while! I was excited to have a chance to see them again.
Saturday
Our hosts were very hospitable. Bharavi's wife Sugathi is an amazing cook! We all stuffed ourselves with the delicious meals.
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| Tasty food! |
The day was spent watching a Bollywood movie, "Jab We Met". I say all day because Bollywood films are seriously long! But it was a great watch, really surprising and funny. Set in some beautiful locations too. Just grateful for the subtitles!
After the film we went for a walk. It was a nice quiet walk around the block punctuated by the loud bangs of firecrackers and dodging explosives!
 |
| Street fireworks! |
We snacked on some tasty street food, battered aubergine! (yep, I willingly ate aubergine... India has changed me!)
We then visited a temple.
That night we watched the fireworks from the balcony. It was such a great view, I'm still in awe of how huge Hyderabad is!
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| By Day |
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| By Night |
Not much sleep happened that night, far to much to talk about.
Sunday
Had a lovely long lie-in!
Taught Bharavi and his son Abhilash Uno, leading to never-ending games.
I helped cook my first Indian meal in India! Didn't burn it either!
Lunch was delish (again).
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| Aloo! |
Went explosives shopping at a massive market, saw some very interesting uses of photoshop! May have ridden Pillion on a motorbike to get there (awesome).
Went for a nice walk with Sugathi where I learnt she had a busy and inspiring life!
Rooftop firework watching was mindblowing! 10 floors up, could see for miles! Non stop fireworks from all over the city! Bursts of dazzling light in the darkness... beautiful.
One of the stories of Diwali (there are many) is of Lord Vishnu destroying the demon Narakasura. With all the crazy explosions around, I could imagine that that was a pretty epic fight!
After that amazing experience we had more tasty food!
Greeted some neighbors.
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| Rangoli |
We were treated to some lovely snacks bu the hospitable Saincher family.
Headed down for the flat's own firework display with a huge bag of sparklers etc. All the neighbours had their own explosives. Some were really exciting, my favorite were "flowerpots" which were small cones which when lit burst out with huge plumes of bright sparks. My least favorite was the "hydrogen bomb" which exploded with a MASSIVE bang! A million sparklers and fireworks made for a good (if blinding and deafening show!)
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| Flower pot! Amazingly, the house didn't burn down! |
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| sparklers were cool... |
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| ... but these were much cooler! |
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| Chakkras, once lit they spun around showering sparks! |
I had great fun watching the show and lighting the explosives. Makes Bonfire night seem tame!
One thing's for certain, the evil entities have been well and truly scared off!!!
I had a great Diwali! Thanks to my hosts for sharing.
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