It was Diwali recently. A large Indian Festival. With this being said, we had visitors! 3 other Fulbrighters came to Bangalore to spend Diwali with us. Amy from Chennai, Bryant from Kodaikanal and Bogi from Vellore. It was probably the best Diwali I have ever had. In all seriousness, it was great. It's a multi-day festival, that revolves around the concept of "Light defeating Dark" and what better way to convey this concept than through the perpetual, and soon transforming to incessant, use of fireworks?! I can't ever see myself living in a war zone. But, this would have to be similar to some extent. Let me put this into perspective for you. In America we have the 4th of July. Some brave people will venture out of state to purchase a few illegal fireworks to shoot off and have a good ol' time, others will make fireworks... but the majority of Americans will gather somewhere to watch a big firework show be put on by the City, or like-wise. Here, in India, fireworks are available everywhere. Every family buys multitudes of fireworks. Do you know how many people live here? Lots. With lots of people, you have lots of fireworks. Firecrackers, sparklers, bottle rockets - some with names I couldn't dream of hydrogen bombs, the terminator 5000, airjet xx, loosey loos and susie soos. It is simply a constant bombardment of the senses. At one point, while talking on the balcony in a medium sized group. There was a brief pause, and that is when we realized that we had completely become desensitized to the noise. A good laugh ensued.
To celebrate Diwali, Aiditya (a fellow Fulbrighter from Mumbai) was in Bangalore to celebrate with his family's house. We were able to join them for lunch in Bangalore, and then continue to join for his families Diwali. The food was incredible, the environment was lively, and there were so, so, so many fireworks. I felt like a kid again. Having them lit in my hand and waiting milliseconds before my fingers turn into mince meat before I joyfully toss the all-too-serious-but-not-taken-seriously-firework into the air. It was quite some fun, and Bevan and I took to lighting off the fireworks often. The only part that really took me by surprise was when staring into the night sky at the kaleidoscope of color, well, IT FALLS ON YOU! Ha! A quick pelt to the head soon raised my Awareness. I was on ninja mode for the rest of the night. Miniature meteors firing in from all directions. It was beautiful chaos. However, all of us weren't so lucky, Bryant caught an errant ember right in the jaw. Leaving a Diwali war scar from when Light defeated the Darkness.........
Prior to heading out to the farmhouse, at Aiditya's house.
Amy, Bryant, Aiditya, Bogi, Britain and Kobe.
(Bevan and Eliza are outside)
What a great group of people... they stayed for 3, 4 and 5 days.
Lots of amazing dinners and talks, a true meeting of minds.
An awesome spider I found at the farmhouse.
This guy! Haha! Bogi and I are walking around the market, and we run into Bryant so we stop and talk for a bit. Then this auto driver hits us, fortunately with his interruption, not his rickshaw. Exclaiming that we must allow him to take us to this specific store he has a business card for, and, he will take us there for only 10 rupee! Quite a low price, but after deflecting the barrage of typical tourist torpedos, I managed to find out that he makes 100rupee in gas credit for every person he takes to the store! With only wandering on the agenda, I proposed he take us to the store (that was "only a kilometer" away) so he could be credited some gas money. Of course, I say, you must do this for free. He obliges, and off we go. The destination is about 4 km away, of course, and with our meeting time with the rest of the group in the tens of minutes, rash decisions must be made. After trudging along in the over-priced trinket store, we jump back into the auto and say onward as fast as possible! Although the Autodriver has other plans, and pleads to allow him to take us to one more store, just "real fast". Being too far to do anything but oblige, we agree and go into yet another over-priced trinket store. But, there was a different air about this store. Immediately greeted by the owner, it is as if he knows he runs an over-priced trinket store. The first cut of silence were the words "I'm having a bad Diwali". When we inquired why, being the sporting young chaps we are, his skit began to take view.. "you are my first customers today, perhaps you can make my day better". His mannerisms are that of a bad acting salesman, let's work out a deal, both of us go home happy. Price slashes faster than you can count! 40% off! No? 50% off! What does this price tag say? 4100? It's yours for only 1800!!! It was quite the ruckus. We managed to make it out without any damage to our pocket size. He gave me his card on the way out the door, well... if I ever do want any over-priced trinkets...
The Banana Lady! She was so nice. In fact, I showed her this picture, and she was so happy she gave me a bunch of bananas!
The collision of the Sun and my camera lens...
Dead gecko + ants + candle wax...
A little homemade ricotta.
add in the veggies...
A spicy pasta from a different night...
This is one of the many delicious meals we have here at the house. Britain is the one to thank for this masterpiece, chicken thai curry (no pollo por me). The shi-ta-ki mushrooms were something else, little morsels of heaven.
Also another one of Britain's creations, Gnocchi. This was the first time I had Gnocchi. Good God, it is something else. I've had it once more after this, and still the same reaction, pure delight.
Welp, I'm going to leave you with that.
Scratch that,
this:
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ReplyDeleteNice snap! Getting crackers in chennai is quite interesting task and a great experience.
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