Diwali is the Festival of Lights....

Thank you Adam Sandler....

Anyway, I had the great luck of being in India while a major festival was taking place. Diwali is the Festival of Lights, and there are different stories on the historical significance of the holiday depending on which part of India you are from. Here, if you are Hindu, it's all about the goddess Lakshmi.

I started out the night before with big plan on what to do (our office was closed and I took full advantage of it) including going to some shops, working out and organizing my pictures. I ended up waking up at like 11:30, scrambling at the hotel gift shop to get an "Indian type" shirt, and not getting anything I wanted done. Again, just like being back home!

I was invited to a co-worker's home to celebrate (Rakesh), and the beginning of the trip started with a little confusion since the driver that was supposed to come and drive me never showed up. After many phone calls, I finally got a driver and we headed out to a part of town that I hadn't been in before. Rakesh lives in Secundrabad, which is almost the same distance (at least in minutes) from Chicago to Niles on a good day. I ended up at Rakesh's house a little early, and found that he was actually still out with his wife, Aditi, at some shops. So me and my driver watched some little kids play cricket, and made small talk about family and sports until Rakesh rolled up in his fancy ass Honda (seriously, this car was niiiice comparatively) and we headed out for some more shopping.

So, in terms of holidays, Diwali is a combo of Christmas and 4th of July. The 'light' theme of the holiday has people decorating their home in lights (the Christmas, and let's not forget the heavy advertising for getting Diwali gifts on TV) and tons and tons of firecrackers (the 4th of July). The first stop on our tour was to get some 'crackers' for later that night. Even though it was still daylight out, we were already hearing crackers go off, and everyone was getting jittery and excited about the forthcoming events. Then we headed to a grocery store, and Aditi and Rakesh were getting some things for their puja /offerings later that night.

So we rolled up to Rakesh's home, which is very big (I swear, property in India is the way to go) and chilled, listening to some Hindi music while Rakesh and Aditi were getting ready, which included decorating their home as such:





Again, all about the lights! After they decorated, and cooked up a couple of things, Rakesh and Aditi got ready to perform their puja/offerings to Lakshmi. First, they were rocking some really nice traditional wear (Rakesh and Aditi dress very Western) - Rakesh had a really nice red shirt/pant combo and Aditi had a really nice brown tunic/pant duo and some really nice jewelery on.

For the most part, every Hindu has a prayer corner/mini room for offerings in their home. Even Jill has a really really nice one at her home, with pretty doors leading to it. I don't really know what is involved but there was light again, incense, and cocunut offerings. Then, Rakesh had this huge ball of fire contained in a metal pot and he took the flame into all the parts of their house to offer the light in the whole home.




After the puja, we rolled out to Rakesh's mom's house, which is very close by. I met almost all of Rakesh's brother and sisters and nieces and nephews since they are all in the area. (Aditi's family is in Jaipur, up north near Delhi.) His nieces and nephew are all freaking adorable and the girls were having fun with some sparklers. Rakesh's nephew is 6 months old and really had no idea what was going on, but was smiling the whole time.

We had dinner, and everyone was amazed that I knew what I was eating.... aloo gobi, chickpea masala, mango chutney, paneer..... I compare it to visiting my family in Poland, who always seem amazed that I can still speak Polish and that I like golabki. I blame it all on living in Chicago, and having a wealth of culture and food around me, but yes, I speak Polish, and yes, I love aloo gobi! And dosas and sambar and idly too. :)

I was nearing the time when I told my driver I would be back (actually, I was totally late) so after dinner, they drove me back, and said our goodbyes (sans crackers) and I headed back. I still got my fill of crackers along the way home since everyone and their mother was out, blowing stuff up. My fave one is something like a Sparkler volcano, which spits out tons of little fireballs and I wasn't a big fan of the ones that just made noise (M-80 type deal). One thing that amazed me is that people were out on their motorbikes, whizzing past these crackers like nothing was going one, when at one point my driver stopped to wait for one sparkler volcano to stop. SCARY! and almost no one wears helmets! but that's another blog.... peace out!