Diwali....

10/21/06

So today was Diwali in India, and I'll just give you a few basic things
which seemed pretty cool to me. Diwali started off as a completely
normal day, but you noticed that all the shopkeepers were decorating and
everyone was in a festive joyous mood. Then at around 10:30 or 11:00, I
was in the temple room, and it seemed completely normal. As I was
walking out towards the front gate, I noticed that they had opened the
two big middle gates here at KB temple (the only time I saw them do that
before was to allow the ambulance to come in...), and then a constant
flood of hundreds of people were just flowing in for about half an hour,
and then it became normal again. Then, at night, I woke up from a nap at
around 6:00, and I heard fireworks starting, because it had only just
gotten dark. Since then, all I have heard is fireworks, all night long.
When I walked out on the street, I had one explode 5 or 10 feet from me,
and I am sitting here at 10 PM, and the fireworks keep on going and
going and going and going. I'm assuming I'll here some at mangala
aroti.... This is definitely the place to be for firework lovers (yes
nimai.....it really is). Alright, I will now go to sleep, as tommorrow
is Govardhan pooja, and I will be going to Govardhan. Haribol.

Chaitanya