Diwali: Food, Family and Firecrackers

First let me just say, sorry I haven't written in a while. I've been partially busy with college applications and essays and also putting off writing about all that's happened. It hasn't really been that much the past 2 weeks, but 3 weeks ago was one of the most exciting weeks of my life! Two main reasons. One, it was Diwali!! The second I'll get to in a blog today or tomorrow (I promise!), but it was going to the beach with my family. 

                                           

Rangoli at my rotary club

Anyway, Diwali! Diwali is known as the festival of lights. It and Holi (the festival of colors) were the only two festivals I'd heard of before I got here. It can basically be broken down into three Fs. Food, family and firecrackers. Hence the title of this post. During this time there's at least 2 weeks off from school and a lot of people have time off from work. People go back home and visit with family and eat. In many ways it's similar to Christmas. 

                                  

Candles outside my front door

My family went to visit relatives pretty much every day. It was nice getting to spend time with everyone. Most are younger than me, but there are a few just a year or two younger than me and a few a little older. Most of my host mom's family lives in Pune. I've been seeing them separately the past few months but now I have basically figured out who is related. One interesting thing about Indian families is that they call their cousins their brothers and sisters. This was confusing at first because I thought both my parents came from huge families (as it turns out they each just have one sibling) but I've come to realize that it shows just how important family is in India.

                                  

Lanterns for sale on the road

Another big aspect of Diwali was the food. So, so, so much food. I help my host mom prepare huge amounts of snacks. Most were sweet but there were also some savory ones. Once we finished they filled 5 big containers on our table. In fact, we continued to eat them for the 2 weeks after Diwali. My favorite was karungi. It's a crescent shaped pastry filled with coconut (a staple of Indian cooking) and jaggery (another staple of Indian cooking). This is then deep fried in oil. They were incredibly delicious and I ate at least 4 of them fresh. 

                                 

                                 

Making karungi

                                       

Each day (there's 4) I woke up at about 6 am from firecrackers going off. The idea is to get up and bathe (in case I haven't mentioned Indians do this every day) before the sun comes up. I was able to do this twice. The first morning I got up at 5:30 so my host brother, Sahil, and I could burst crackers with the other kids in our society. It was weird having fireworks so early in the morning, but also really exciting. These crackers are in some ways similar to the ones in the US (sparklers and colored fountains) but there are also ones that are definitely not available in Minnesota. Namely bottle rockets and the really loud ones that come in two rows tied together. For the few weeks before Diwali stalls were set up on the main roads selling every type of firecracker. 

                                            

                                 

Me and Sahil with sparklers

                                 

We used so many firecrackers!

                                             

                                   

                                         

I've rambled off on a tangent, but let me explain my other early morning experience. A good Indian friend of mine, Aditi, who was an inbound in Sweden last year invited me to go to Sarasbaug with her for some kind of lighting that was supposed to be really cool. Some of her friends would also be going including a girl named Sana who was an inbound in Ohio. The only catch was that we had to reach there at 5 am, and since it was halfway across the city that meant leaving at 4:30. In order to do this I woke up at 3:45 in the morning. It surprisingly wasn't that bad and I was pretty awake. It kind of reminded me of waking up really early for sub-zero APUSH reviews at 6:30 last year! Anyway, I dragged myself out of bed hoping that it would be amazing and totally worth it. I reasoned that I should at least check it out since, after all, I'm only going to be in India for a year and I might not get this chance again.

Boy, was it worth it!! It was amazing. First of all, a temple just across the street was completely lit up and gorgeous. Here's a picture.

                                   

When I finally entered the gardens I was blown away again. It was still quite dark, but all over the lawn there were designs made out of flowers, flowerpetals and candles. And complicated designs too, not simple ones. They were breathtaking and for the first 10 minutes or so I couldn't believe I was really there. At the gardens many people were lighting floating lanterns. (Yes, just like in the movie Tangled!) They were beautiful, and since it was still dark and the sky was clear there were lights filling the early morning sky. It was beautiful to see them highlighted against the palm trees and all of the lights on the temple. 

                             

                              

                              

Me lighting a lantern

                              

Me and some Indian friends at Sarasbaug

Overall Diwali was an amazing festival. I spent time with my family, ate good food and enjoyed lots of firecrackers and new experiences. While it may have been almost 3 weeks ago (yet again, I'm sorry!) it was one of my favorite parts of my time here and I loved every bit of it!

Me, Audrey and Tamara lighting 3 fountains at once

Me and Audrey are on the far left and Tamara is somewhere to the right

An action shot of me (and 2 neighbor kids) running away from the firecracker I had just lit

Tamara and I got fancy with the camera effects

I close with an action shot of me running away after lighting a bottle rocket on my roof