My 3rd Diwali in India

I'm playing blog catch up today, so I'm going to start with Diwali. Although all of my colleagues thought it was my first Diwali in India, it was actually my third. It was also the first after marriage, which is supposed to be a special one.

Diwali fell on a Tuesday this year and everyone seemed to take off the day before and the day after. This resulted in a fairly quiet work week, and I was able to work from home. On Tuesday, we had a pancake breakfast and later one of Ani's sister's and her husband came by with Diwali sweets (yum!). Later in the evening, we headed to Ani's house for puja, dinner and the required Diwali firecrackers.

This is our house (second floor) with lots of Diwali/Christmas lights. And it's blurry because of all of the smoke from firecrackers. Great for the environment, huh?

Diwali 2006

Diwali 2006 has come and gone in the capital and things are beginning to settle down. Everyone warned of the craziness of the fireworks, but it would have been impossible to adequately prepare me for the madness that it actually was.

Saturday was quite nice. It started with breakfast at the guest house with Lauren, a stop in a craft market and then coffee in Khan Market. There, we picked up some sweets to bring to the Diwali lunch hosted by some Danish friend, hence the Danish flag on their doors in the picture to the right. The food at the lunch was phenomenal and the company was even better. After lunch (it was already after 6pm), I squeezed in a quick nap to recourse for the evening. We made our way to Vivien and Elodie's flat in the Defense Colony. Their flat has a beautiful balcony that offered a great vantage point to the firecracker festivities going on below. Coming from the Nation's Capital, I thought I had seen firework displays before. Instead, I quickly learned that it is one thing to watch fireworks when you can settle into a nice spot on the grass and view them overhead, and it's another when they are right in front of you. At home I always had a certain comfort level knowing that the fireworks were far away and that they were being set off by trained professionals. You have none of that comfort here.

From the balcony, we watched as neighbors filled the streets to set off their arsenals. Some fireworks were launched into the air and provided the beautiful displays to which I am accustomed. But many more were just firecrackers that spewed flames a few feet off the ground accompanied by incredibly loud booms. My favorite of the night was one that littered the street with colorful confetti.

And I'm featuring this lovely photo of Lauren, Nic and Louise at the Diwali party on Saturday. It looks like they will be prominent figures in my life over the next few months, so you should get used to hearing about them. Louise is my co-worker from South Africa, social life-planner-extraordinaire, and shopping partner. She's done these jobs extremely well, as I'm now exhausted and sick (see next paragraph). Nic is her flat mate, fellow South African, and cricket enthusiast. He's already taken to calling me Chander - a la Mrs. Roder. He's signed up for a 2 year stint in Delhi, so it's a good thing he's not going anywhere anytime soon. Friday was the first and only day I haven't seen Louise since I've been in Delhi. Lauren (from Holland) picked up where she left off and invited me out for a night of hotel bar-hopping with friends. And we're staying at the same guest house, so I get to see her just about every day too. That's until she moves to a flat of her very own next week, since she will be here for 2-3 years. So, these three and the countless other people I've met so far have made my transition to life in Delhi impeccably smooth and immensely entertaining. I can't help but look forward to the next 5 1/2 months!

Now that things are beginning to settle down, I'm going to use this time to recover from the cold I seemed to have caught here. I'm blaming it on the air pollution, the excessive AC and my general lack of sleep over the past two weeks. I guess with all of the excitement of being in a new city and meeting new people, I have neglected my body. Since this past weekend was Diwali, I didn't want to stay in and miss out on all of the fun and fireworks. And If I had, I would have nothing to write about on my blog!