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Published: October 20th 2017
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Colourful sand designs created for Diwali Today is Diwali festival day and everyone is happy and wishes us Happy Diwali, we manage to squeeze in more food before the taxi arrives to take us to Dehradun to fly back to Delhi. The roads are clearer today and so it doesn’t take us that long to reach Rishikesh. We ask the driver to stop here so we can try and find the copper flasks that Amira told us she saw here by the river when we went to the Aarti. We forgot though that there are two bridges so the driver takes us to the other bridge and we head more into the centre of Rishikesh. It is lovely to see more of the town but we can’t see any copper flasks for sale. We wander further into the maze of streets and I say to Shenton “we should head back i don’t want to get lost here” Shenton then spots a comedy moment and has an audience of the shopkeepers and he replies “you don’t come to Rishikesh to get yourself lost, you come her to find yourself” the shopkeepers laugh and he adds that to his list of jokes for his expanding Indian stand up comedy
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Outside of the Sikh Temple Gurudwara Bangla Sahib routine, coming soon to a town near you, in India only, hopefully.
We arrive at the airport very early and there is not that much to do here as it is one single gate, Shenton decides he will have a coffee and some quinoa puffs, both of which taste very, how can I say? Weird, though complimenting each other perfectly. The fight back is short and sweet and we get the bus metro combo back into the city without a problem. As we leave there are moto/rickshaws waiting outside the station and we get in one but as we ask the price he says 200 (it cost us 50 to bring us here) we try to get him to charge 50 but he is annoying us so we walk on to Connaught place and grab one from there, it seems everyone is putting up the price today though as it is Diwali, we he pay 70 rupees, 25 pence more, oh the horror of paying too much!
Back at the hotel the usual moto/rickshaw men are queued up outside and I get out of our rickshaw, they start asking if I want to go on a
tour, Shenton then gets out and the man says to me " Look It is him, he looks like a South Indian movie star” another of the moto men goes up to him and asks when is he buying his guitar and another says "I see you have had a shave.", he is already well known here, maybe he will have lots of people at his comedy night after all!
After a shower and a rest at the hotel we head out to see the Sikh temple Gurudwara Bangla Sahib. Everyone has to cover their heads before entering the temple, I have two headscarfs to choose from and Shenton chooses the one with the skulls on and fashions himself a turban, he looks more like a pirate than a respectful visitor. We wander around the complex which is breathtaking and as it is Diwali, the prayers are being sung and there are lots of people here, worshiping intently, The temple itself is very serene and you can feel the energy of all the people praying together. Outside there is a lake which you can walk around and the people are lighting candles on one side of the lake.
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Night draws in, Diwali lights begin. We take some pictures which look very odd, almost as if we have been superimposed upon the temple background, also strangely, we look about 20 years younger, we are now sure the Ganges must have purified us, the proverbial fountain of youth. Still as we walk outside I catch a look of Shenton under a street lamp and sure enough it was just a trick of the camera, a purified Shenton? Not a chance. As the sun sets and we head out to Connaught place we soon realise that everything is closed, the streets are no longer lined with hawkers and market stalls. We now discover scented candles have been placed everywhere, and most people are heading home to spend Diwali with their families. Other people are lighting lanterns which float up into the sky creating an etheral impression of light, all seems at peace within Delhi.
We walk along the street and a young Indian man does a double take at Shenton and immediately starts to follow us, he is gibbering at us, mainly in Hindi, we hear, “movie star”, “same eyes” and “fighter” and we realise someone else is mistaking Shenton for this Indian movie star.
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Walking into the temple He keeps walking beside us staring at Shenton and gibbering at us. Shenton tries to give him some money thinking that is what he wants but he doesn’t want it he just keeps gesturing for his autograph. We manage to escape him, by getting into a moto/rickshaw and head back to the hotel as all the cafes, bars, shops, hawkers, are closing for Diwali. The sound of the fire works then starts to build, and back in our room we watch from up high as the night explodes into another snap shot of this crazy metropolis.
We have a lovely dinner with a very expensive bottle of “cheap” wine and after a couple of beers in the hotel bar go back upstairs to see the fireworks from our 17th floor window. We are told there will not be as many this year due to the ban on selling any fireworks within Delhi. Last year the air pollution levels, from the fire works, after the party was over helped create a pea soup that lasted for a couple of days, increasing the already toxic air quality within the city.
Happy Diwali to all.
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amsuae
Andy Smith
the images look really great, seems you are both seeing a lot of really interesting places. We can only imagine what Diwali would be like in India based on how it is celebrated here by the Hindu expat community. Fireworks are banned from public sae but they do lay on public displays and of course there are the light and candles that all display around their houses and apartments. look forward to reading these as you post...