Happy Divali!!!!

---

Thank you everyone for your messages and comments, it is so good to hear from you all, if you don't want me sending you reminders about my updates just let me know and I'll stop bugging you!


Well, I've spent a few days in Delhi now and am feeling a lot more relaxed about being here and I have my head around things a bit more. I do keep having these weird moments where I wonder what on earth I am doing all the way over here when everyone is all the way over there. Also it's weird not having a job to think about, I know I've only been going for a week so it should just feel the same as being on holiday but its strange, I feel a bit rootless at the moment, it's quite nice actually!

I think I would have struggled at first wherever I had arrived at, just because of the situation I am in regardless of the country. I am now getting very excited about seeing more of the country and learning more about the people and making the most of this experience as I can, I get the feeling this could be the most amazing part of my whole trip.Talking to people I realise how lucky I was to have the experiences of staying with Indian families, thanks to Raj. I got to stay in the wealthier part of South Delhi to begin with and to see a side of Agra that most people might not get the chance too and was treated like a member of the family by everyone.

So I've just been relaxing, not sleeping very much at all as my room is unbelievably noisy, I think I am averaging about 2 hours a night, the noise dies down at about 3am and then at 5.30am some Indian music starts playing (that sounds unnervingly like the chorus of 'Kinky Boots') and then the stalls are set up again, the traffic and the shouting and horn honking starts all over again. But I am feeling very chipper considering my lack of sleep, I have been on a rickshaw around town, seen a few sights, such as India gate and Lodi gardens and generally sat in the sun on rooftops drinking cups of chai. A nice swedish couple pointed me in the direction of a nice place to eat up the road that also serves beer so I've had a great curry there and think I will head back tonight as it may be the last time I get a beer for a while, I am heading
off to Dharamsala tomorrow, a 13 hour bus journey overnight....can't wait..... Dharamsala is towards the mountains in the north so it will be cold, am really looking forward to the fresh air. I have never felt so dusty and grubby in my life, it is unbelievable, especially
the road I am staying on, a long narrow market street where all the
cheap hotels and hostels are, so many people and motorbikes and
motorised rickshaws and cows and dogs and everything, fresh air is definitly
calling me!!! I don't have anywhere to stay sorted out yet, but I arrive at 8am in the morning so it shouldn't be a problem getting a room and its not such a popular destination now anyway as its getting colder. There is a large population of Tibetans there as well because it is where the Dali Lama's residence is since he took flight from Tibet and so it should be an interesting mix of people and cultures.

I've been chatting to various people now I am feeling more at home and confident, in Lodi gardens a young man from East Inia came over and started chatting to me, we struggled to understand each other most of the time, but he was nice and it was intersting to speak to someone from another part of India.We only chatted for about an hour and then he wandered back up to the market area with me and gave his phone number and insisted on buying me some bangles, I tried to disuade him as I thought this was a bit much having only chatted so breifly but he insisted and asked me to call him if I was still in Delhi next week, before he heads back to his home over in East India. So I am now the proud owner of 4 golden bangles as a gift, it was very sweet of him, particularly as I said I won't be able to call him as I'll be elsewhere but he was very philosophical about it and said at least I had something to remember Delhi by.

I will hopefully also be back in touch with Sanjay and Preeti again, they have been away for Divali but when I get back from up north I will hopefully see them again and be a bit more myself and less shellshocked than first time.

Divali day

Anyway, whilst I have been doing this over the past few days there have been decroations springing up everywhere and fairy lights, a lattice work of silver tinsel is hanging over the street I am staying in and everywhere is lit up at night, it's great! All this was in preparation for Divali, the biggest festival that they celebrate in India.
I had asked various people what the actual day of Divali on the Friday would hold and most of the time I was met with the words 'firecrackers', I have been hearing a few of these going off here and there all week anyway, so I figured it would be much of the same.....

I headed up to the rooftop cafe at the Anoop hotel over the road at about 6.30pm, from down on the road I could hear a few cracks and bangs but as I came out on the roof the noise just hit me. It was amazing, there were fireworks and fire crackers going off everywhere, throughout the whole sky, nearby and far away, I sat outside from 6.30pm until 1am and only then had it started to die down, it was just a continual barrage of noise all night, with the bangs of the fireworks occasionaly interspersed with the mooing of a somwhat distressed sounding cow, this was even the more worrying as I was up on the roof about 5 stories high and it sounded very close, how had it got up there and how would it get down??? Anyway I digress.

As I said the noise never stopped and some of the bangs were VERY loud and occaisionally a bit of firework strayed rather close to our roof, and a one point some landed on a man sat near me and burnt his coat a little, but largely we all escaped unscathed. They were being let off all around, from tiny rooftops,alleyways and everywhere. There was none of this 'set the fireworks well away from the crowded area, light the touch paper and stand well back' business we do at home, they just set them alight and let them go. Can you imagine how happy I was to sit there for hours on end?? A particular lover of all things sparkly,
I had my very own gigantic firework display over the whole city, fairylights twinkling on the roofs and in the streets, tinsel and coloured ribbon everywhere and the most important part of the festival, little candles lit in every doorway to light Rama's journey home.

It was an amazing night, I chatted to a few people over on the Anoop hotel roof, Monica from Sweden and a bloke from Pennsylvania, all three of us travelling alone, we made for some odd conversations.So after much discussion about Milton, Neichze,the war in Iraq and his organic farm and meditation retreat he's going to set up in order to enlighten his nation I headed back to my hotel at about 10.30pm. I had to brave
the street with the kids and their firecrackers, and then headed on up to the roof of my hotel. I met a nice bloke from Wimbledon who is half Pakistani and who is over here learning Urdu so that when he gets to Pakistan in a few months time he can have a conversation with his Grandmother for the first time in his life, very inspiring I thought. I went off to bed and then suprisingly it was quieter than usual in my room, everyone was off celebrating with their family and friends so I managed to get to sleep a little easier until kinky boots kicked in at 5.30am again.......

This next section is not for readers of a nervous disposition...

I'd like to finish this entry with a rather sad tale, I was on the roof again today sitting in the sun when the cats pounced on a little squirrel (they look like cute little chipmunks out here), it fell down a grate and the waiter went and saved it and put it on the edge of the balcony but it didn't know what to do, it just clung to the side of the wall on the outside. Eventually we all settled down and it started to make it's way along the edge and so we thought it had sorted itself out. A little while later I noticed the cat hanging around again and then as I looked it went to pounce, I got up to try and stop it but it had shocked the little squirrel and it had lost its grip and I was there just in time to see it fall about 5 stories down hit a tin roof and then bounce off and down into a gap to the floor where I couldn't see it anymore. As you can imagine I was rather upset by this, the waiters came rushing over due to my flapping and squealing but nothing could be done of course. So spare a thought for my poor little squirrel friend today because it has made me sad.

---

Comments

[anonymous]

Good to know you are having fun in India :)
Cheers. Happy Diwali. You must have reached Dharamsala I suppose, by now. I am in India, in Mumbai. Just happened across yur blog while searching for something else. I had escaped from Mumbai during Diwali to a hillstation - Panchgani - nearby and took in some fresh air. Best of luck and have fun in India. Bye, Matt