Our host sister and her husband later took us to the nearby park where there was to be a huge celebration. The crowds were a bit more than overwhelming, according to Uncle (our host dad) some people walked here from villages - not sure if this is accurate, however. There were three colossal, colorful structures representing Ravan, the "bad guy," and his two sidekicks - Meghanath and Kumkaran, names provided by my host brother who laughed when I thought they were all the same guy. Anyway, Ravan is the manifestation of evil and Dasara celebrates the story of how Lord Rama (good guy, duh) defeated Ravan. So in order to retell this story on this day, they choose to have a huge gathering at the park where they set fire to these structures, which are previously stuffed with firecrackers. The fire spreads really quickly and the fireworks start going off causing a lot of noise and chaos, but is actually really exciting. At first, having not really been told what today was all about before going to said festival, of course thought the fire was accidental and convinced myself I was going to undergo some serious injuries...which was probably quite plausible anyway given that the fireworks were extremely close to my face and I was covered in ashes by the end of the show. Tania explained the situation, however, so I calmed down and enjoyed the show. It was a lot of fun and beautiful to watch, in a strange sort of way. It was loud, bright, quick, terrifying and exhilarating all at once. Now I'm just really excited to for the next festival...and telling you guys all about it, of course!
Hindi Midterm, Part 2 tomorrow and then I'm off to Jaipur with some friends for the weekend. I'll let you guys know how that goes ASAP. In the meantime you can find pictures from today in my Picasa album below. Hope everyone has a great weekend!
- Eli
