Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights. Technically Diwali (also known as Deepavali) is a 5-day festival, but last Friday, what I believe is the third day, was the most important (I think). In preparation for Diwali, many people clean their houses and buy new clothes to wear on Diwali. They also may decorate their houses with drawings and candles. In Hyderabad, everyone burns crackers (firecrackers), and there are lots of firework shows on display, most of them amateur. Many people told me that eating sweets is also part of Diwali. It's a big holiday in India and though we had heard a lot of hype about it, we still had no plans or idea what to do on Wednesday. And then, Thursday morning, the invitations started rolling in.
Thursday night we had dinner at Shlayma's boss's house. She dressed Lily and Shlayma up in Saree's (I was already wearing a brand new Salwar Kameez that I got stitched from material I bought the week before).
Shlayma, me and Lily
Friday morning we went to brunch at a restaurant with Lily's boss, her husband, and another of Lily's coworkers. We did not eat breakfast since we were on our way to brunch. On our way out the door, we grabbed a box of sweets to offer to our neighbors from our floor, who we have only said hello to so far. We knocked on each of their doors, bearing a box of sweets from which they could pick and choose their favorites. The first took, retreated into her flat as her little daughter took our sweets, and returned moments later with a plate with three fried chapati's (flat circular bread). The second held out her own box of sweets as we held out ours, and we exchanged sweets. The third woman invited us in, and gave us square pieces of bread-like substances fried in ghee (special butter) and sugar. So all in all, despite trying not to eat before brunch, we had about 2000 calories each before leaving our apartments.
Our neighbors handpainted their door frames in preparation for Diwali.
When we finally made it to brunch, we all ordered Dosa's, one of my favorite South Indian foods. Shlayma ordered a paper dosa, which is thin but huge
Paper dosa
Lily and I went to my coworker's house for her Pooja and then for dinner and burning crackers. The Pooja was really interesting, they had an elaborate alter with many offerings and a small statue of the goddess Lakshmi (who they worship during Diwali, or maybe just during this day of Diwali...). The offerings included candles, a banana, a coconut, a custard apple (my favorite fruit), cashews, several sweets, and flowers. My coworker's sister-in-law sang all 1008 (yes, one thousand and eight, not a typo) of Lakshmi's names.
Lakshmi's alter for the Pooja
Aparna and me
While burning crackers in the yard, we heard and saw crackers being burned in every direction, from probably every house. It was very loud and bright and intense. We took an auto to Banjara Hills, where a friend of an old volunteer names Apoorva (now our friend) lives. We got charged extra since it was the night of a holiday, which was OK because we were lucky we got an auto at all. The drive was filled with crazy blasting sounds and fire and light coming from various places. Sometimes we would have to stop short because people were burning crackers in the street.
Me burning a sparkler
At Apoorva's we met up with Shlayma and a friend of someone on our program in Mumbai who was in Hyderabad for a job interview. The 5 of us did a small Pooja, then used the candles to do Shabbat. It was a nice sharing of religious ceremonies, and it was nice for Apoorva because it was his first Diwali away from his home in Delhi (he moved to Hyderabad for work). Apoorva's mom sent a box of fancy chocolates from a famous sweet shop in Delhi; Lily, a chocoholic, was in heaven all weekend.
Fancy chocolates
We watched fireworks from Apoorva's roof, which overlooks the city. There were fireworks from about 6 directions, all night; all night, and all weekend, there were crazy loud booms and bangs going off all over the city.
This is looking out off Apporva's roof during the day
Saturday we went to Chutney's, a nice restaurant, and then walked in this pretty park. We went out with Apoorva's friends to a club at the Taj Krishna, a posh 5-star hotel in Banjara Hills. It's strange going to a club, or even to most places in Banjara Hills, and seeing so many people donning Western clothes; in the club I think I was the only one wearing Indian garments. At work I am the only one who regularly wears any Western articles; my boss once wore a polo shirt and jeans, and a coworker wore a t-shirt with a skirt last week.
All in all, it was a lovely 4-day festival Diwali weekend in Hyderabad.
