Gone crackers

Festival season is upon us. We missed out on Navaratri (Nine Nights) and Dussehra (Tenth Day) while we were in Thailand. These festivals are quite complicated to explain as they celebrate different things in different states, but the one common thread is the victory of good over evil. In Southern India, Eastern India and Western India, the festival of Navaratri which culminates with Vijayadashami commemorates the legend in which the Goddess Durga vanquishes the demon Mahishasura, an event that is said to have taken place in the vicinity of the present day city of Mysore in Karnataka which is only about an hour and a half away from Bangalore. This festival is known as Durga Puja and is huge in Bengal, the eastern state which has as its capital Calcutta. In Northern India, the same 10-day festival commemorates the victory of Ram, a prince, over Ravana, the ruler of Lanka, who according to the Ramayana (an ancient epic that forms the basis for many Hindu beliefs) had abducted his wife Sita Devi, and held her captive.



In Northern India, this festival is highly celebrated. The Ramlila, an abridged dramatization of the Ramayana, is enacted with much public fervor all over northern India during the festival. The burning effigies of Ravana, signifying the victory of good over evil, brings the festivities to a colorful and loud close as the effigies are lined with firecrackers. In Bengal in Eastern India, Durga Puga is a huge festival (the biggest of the year in this part of the country) celebrated by the building of pandals (huge stationary float-like objects) to honor the goddess. Everything is lit with lights, and from what I gather, the place goes crazy. In the south, people set up altars for the goddess Durga where they offer up small objects from which the goddess is to derive enough power to defeat the demon. In addition, on the 9th day, the South and North Indians also offer up their tools to Saraswati and do not work on that day to allow the goddess use of the tools of their trade. On the tenth day (Dussehra) prayers are made to their tools (be it books for students, cars for taxi drivers, etc.) and according to my friend Neha, everyone straps banana leaves (or banana branches) on everything (on cars, motorcycles, autos, buses), at least in Karnataka.



Now, on to Diwali (Deepavali), the festival of lights that celebrates the victory of light over dark which was celebrated this weekend. Diwali is the homecoming of King Ram and his rescued wife Sita after ultimately defeating Ravana following a war and a long exile. The prince’s path home was supposedly lit by oil lamps that his subjects left out to light their way. One of the major traditions of this holiday includes Lakshmi Puja. Lakshmi Puja, marks the most important day of Diwali celebrations, when Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and Ganesha, the God of auspicious beginnings are worshipped across Hindu homes, followed by lighting of lamps all across the streets and homes, to welcome prosperity and well-being in. Many people actually leave their doors wide open to allow the free entry of these things (and a good number of mosquitoes, I imagine). As far as I can tell, the major tradition of Diwali is bursting fireworks. Imagine the 4th of July simultaneously on crack and steroids, for 4 days straight! The firecrackers started on Thursday morning around 7 AM and when we got home from work in the evening it was also pretty loud and a little nerve-wracking to be honest (our kittens were in a constant state of terror). This continued all weekend, and even on Monday morning we heard crackers bursting. It was loud enough that we closed all of our windows to try to block some of the sound, but even then there were times that we had to shout to hear one another even when we were standing right next to each other. On Friday night I went to a Diwali party hosted by the NCBS, and I got to watch the Lakshmi Puja and then we played some games and ate (the universal method of celebration). We also went to the roof and watched fireworks bursting all around us. From up there it was actually quite nice, so many beautiful explosions and we were a bit removed from the noise which made it all the more enjoyable. There is obviously no regulations on fireworks here, so every kind imaginable were being lit by people of all ages, from small children to the elderly. And I honestly think that ALL the people here lit at least one cracker, it was pretty crazy. Anyway, we made it through our first Diwali, and I think we suffered no more than minor hearing damage. Hopefully the next festival will be a bit more quiet…