Diwali 2023

A belated but Happy Diwali. The Indian festival of lights that happens during a new moon. It symbolizes bringing light to the world and people traditionally hang these types of lanterns in their homes.

I know there is a more significant religious meaning, but I think it was when a god of goodness defeated a god of darkness or evil. Regardless, here we were in India for their biggest holiday. As with most Indian holidays, it follows a lunar calendar so it is never the exact same date but it typically falls between late October and mid to late November. My understanding it is a multi day festival and most people go home for the week and spend time with family and friends (similar to our Christmas).

We celebrated our first Diwali at my office. Which is good because I have no idea how to celebrate.

First no Indian celebration is complete without food. So we catered an entire buffet meal of different dishes, both veg and non veg. Don’t ask me to write the names because I will definitely screw it up — something murgh, something masala, paneer such and such, Badha Pav, and brownies!

After stuffing ourselves with spicy and sweet foods we played a game called HOUSIE. Everyone in the office participated and it cost 20 rupees per scoreboard. We limited it to encourage people to participate. The best analogy I can give is that it is like bingo. Here is me with the Mrs. and our scorecards. We both lost terribly and never got a “bingo”.

After the game, in customary fashion we did a few quick speeches on being thankful. I of course had to take the microphone to thank everyone and to talk about how the fact that both western (Christian) and Indian (Hindu) religions celebrate good over evil and light in darkness, is no coincidence. There is a higher power leading us to the right path. Then I told a story about kindness and how each of us can change everyone elses world with just the simplest of gestures and thoughts.

After the crying, we gave presents to our entire staff. It is tradition to give gifts to all the people in your life as well as candies so we gave them chocolates and a gift for their home. Here is me with my pantry boy Akash. I love this kid. Every day he serves me coffee in my office (before you get judgmental let me assure you this is common practice in India AND he serves everyone else in the office too). Everyday he has a smile. He loves talking with me to learn English and he dreams of one day being a businessman. I love this kid.

The event was a success and it was quite hard to focus on work the rest of the day…but we managed. Even Tenley took to the mic, just like her parents, and brought laughter and smiles to all.

On the actual day of Diwali we went on a walk and there were several makeshift stores selling flowers. They were beautiful.

But by far and away what came to our attention was fireworks stands. All over the place. Most of them would be illegal in most US states.

And sure enough that day the fireworks started about noon but really picked up around 8pm. There were some so loud they shook our windows. We enjoyed most of the evening on our balcony, breathing in extremely polluted air but watching an unbelievable and free fireworks show across the horizon. For a few hours it sounded like we were in a war zone.

The fireworks continued for several nights. One woke me dead out of my sleep at 3am. Just a big “POW” enough to jolt me awake. It continued for almost a week after including one Tuesday morning where some guy was up at 6am lighting off fireworks in the distance. It was crazy, us Americans and our fireworks are so tame.

Thus ended our celebration of the largest Indian holiday. Now that I have experienced the whole year of Indian celebrations I have to admit that I think Holi is still my favorite. Nothing like aggressively going after kids to throw dirt in their face. yes, I am still a child.

But we loved the theme, the lights, the celebrations, and the spirit of Diwali and look forward to celebrating it again next year!