Boom!!!!
We just enjoyed/survived our first Diwali in Hyderabad, and boy what an audio-visual experience!
Firecrackers have been going off for 3 days and on Tuesday it really felt like living in Baghdad at the height of the aerial bombardments! It is really difficult to try and capture Diwali in pictures or video because it is a 360 degree, 3-dimensional, surround-sound experience.
Get the latest Flash Player to see this video.
On the first night we went for a stroll amidst bombs exploding and rockets launched from around us in the roads. We also took an auto ride to try and get a better view, but 4 Schefflers in an auto was probably not the best idea, with me sitting next to the driver holding on for dear life as we negotiated the bumps and the traffic.
Eventually we climbed up onto our roof to really enjoy the show, but we had to dodge the occasional missile that came our way. The dull sounds you hear are explosions in the night sky that my little camera’s microphone struggled to interpret.
Get the latest Flash Player to see this video.
The fireworks have delightful names, such as “a 1 000 bombs” (which we were frequently “entertained” with). There are rumoured to be a “10 000 bombs” version as well, which contains more firepower than most countries’ military.
It was a loud and bright festive affair that we really enjoyed. Our dogs enjoyed it a bit less, but they coped fairly well with the deafening chaos that surrounded them. (We let them stay in the house, with the tv or radio for company, for most of Diwali to limit their exposure to the warfare outside.)
We also participated in Diwali:
Diwali in India is highly recommended (but your pets might not be fans).
We’re heading off to Mumbai and Goa with my parents. Hopefully there will be something to blog about when we return.
Until then …
Theo Scheffler
October 30th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
For those of you who couldn’t open this page this morning, it was due to a documented bug in Internet Explorer.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927917
Internet Explorer is the cause of most of my gray hairs!