Diwali: Lights and Darks

As today is the end of the multi-day Diwali celebrations, I wanted to reflect on the good and bad experiences we had this year during this festive time. For those who don't know Diwali is an Indian holiday that appears to be a mix of Christmas and Fourth of July. The history of Diwali and its many significances are too much for me to cover here, for that check out the wiki page, linked here

Over the last few days of Diwali, which really only lasts for a single day but there are actually two days leading up to it, and one or two after it, we've had a lot of fun, basking in the light of our lives.



We also had a really great time hanging out with our friend Shubhra



In addition to making a phenomenal dinner for us, she had been busy all day decorating her house with beautiful lights, and being the amazing artist she is, painted traditional Diwali floor designs throughout the house.












As we celebrated, Annie just slept peacefully like the perfect baby she is.



That was all what I consider the "good", the "light" parts of Diwali. And then there was the "bad", which from my perspective was the "dark" side.

I've always said about Diwali, half-jokingly, "it's all fun and games until someone blows off their hand," which is a reference to the sad reality that after Diwali the newspapers always have stories of the people who were maimed or died playing with fireworks.


Fireworks

Well, I can now add "it's all fun and games until your apartment building catches on fire".

Yes, it's unfortunately true. With family friends visiting we had a lovely evening of walking around the neighborhood and gagging on the acrid smoke from the fireworks. So that you have an idea, think of a microwave popping pop corn....CONSTANTLY. And the air being like pea-soup fog from the smoke. So that was all well and dandy.

Around midnight, I've fallen asleep and Jo wakes me up. "WE HAVE TO LEAVE, THE BUIDLING'S ON FIRE!!!" Before I can put my shirt on, she has grabbed Annie and fled the building. I get dressed, go to the door which she had left open and see that our roof is consumed in flames. Noting that our stairwell is still clear, I take a minute and grab our laptops, external hard drives and passports. I'm practical if nothing else. Within a half hour the fire department arrived, and began working on putting out the blaze. Unfortunately, it took them about two hours to get it completely extinguished. So we got to spend some quality time with our neighbors in their PJs.

While no one was hurt and our flat was undamaged, it was very sad, because what had burnt was an illegal structure that our neighbors had built on the roof to house their maid. Unfortunately, this kind of arrangement is very common in Delhi. While we don't know exactly what happened, we have surmised, from the sight of the crying 10-year old neighbor's child who was being questioned by police, that he had been playing on the roof with firecrackers and one had caught this shed on fire.

The next morning, this is what remained, as seen from our porch.



the remains of the shed


The debris


Ash and water tanks

As my mom wrote in an email this morning, we sure gave Terry and Ginny who were staying with us a "warm welcome," and isn't that what Diwali is about?