Happy Diwali!

Last night was Diwali, one of the major Hindu festivals, also known as the Festival of Lights. Like most holidays people had been preparing for Diwali for a couple weeks now. Traffic at the markets increased, and Christmas-style lights began to adorn the houses. But the true scale for measuring the nearness of Diwali was the number of fire crackers that could be heard each night. In India they call fireworks, fire crackers, which shows the emphasis on sound over light. Every night for about a week and a half we’ve heard an increasing number of thunderous bangs. It drove the dog crazy and sounded like a war zone.

Diwali finally arrived and also happened to be the day that Anna was leaving. One of the Diwali traditions is to buy sweets as a gift for the people you visit and so many shops had covered their storefronts with colorful buntings and were displaying trays of sweets. In the evening Anna and I packed up our luggage and went to the Mohajer house which I’ve moved back to.

As the sun descended the amount of fire crackers increased. Finally when it was dark we went up onto the flat roof of the house, three stories up. From there we could see a wonderful view of Lucknow stretching out before us, and colorfully lit up.



Most firework displays in Canada happen in one direction, and usually follow certain protocols of safety and design. But Diwali was 360 degrees of fireworks. Everyone was launching them from the streets and the rooftops. I would be watching one burst in the distance and see a flash of light from my peripheral. When I turned around the dying embers of some golden flower were exploding over our heads. And some of them were quite literally exploding over our heads, something you don’t generally get to see in Canada due to regulations. There were so many explosions that it sounded like a revolution.

One particular rocket whizzed over our heads and landed on the rooftop, so we decided to go inside. We visited with the family that lives above us, and then went to our house and chatted while the sounds of explosions rang all around us.

Our neighbors above us said they were lighting firecrackers so we went back to roof. At this point, a couple hours later, the show was in full swing, with a constant burst of fireworks in all directions. Red clouds blooming far in the distance, green rockets firing in the fore, one house would suddenly start their show, launching explosion after explosion, and suddenly a huge one would burst directly over us. The sky was thick and smoky.

At ten thirty it was time to drop Anna off at the train station so Arastu, Arman, Sohayl, Anna and I all got in the car. The night was wonderfully cool and alive with explosions. When we got to the train station it was as empty as I’ve ever seen it. We said good bye to Anna and rode back to our beds.

Suffice it to say, it was the best firework show I’ve ever seen, if only because the whole city was the show. I’ll be missing Halloween this year, and I also missed Canada Day, but I feel more than compensated.