Happy Diwali!

It's Diwali time in India. Again. Yay.
If you didn't quite grasp the latent sarcasm in that statement, let me clarify:

Diwali is an Indian Hindu holiday (also celebrated by Sikhs and Jains) that is technically tomorrow, but each year stretches itself in both directions by at least two days.
The decorations and sentiments behind the holiday celebration are lovely: In Hindu, Diwali is an occasion to honor Rama's victory over Ravana; Truth's victory over Evil - from the mythical story of Rama and Sita, as well as a celebration of the victory of Lord Vishnu (in his 8th incarnation as Krishna) as he destroyed the demon Narkasura (one of the Hindu bad guys - charged with stealing women and making everyone generally miserable).
For Hindus, the stories and the holiday are a reminder that good can triumph over and even be born of evil. It is a time to give thanks for the bounty of food, to pray pujas to Hindu gods and goddesses (devas and devis), and celebrate life with friends and family.

During Diwali the sounds of happy people visiting eachother for dinner feasts and gift giving fills the streets; children laugh and play together late into the night, drawing elaborate designs in colored chalk on the ground outside their homes and lighting small oil candles called 'diyas' in hopes of health, wealth, wisdom, peace, courage, and fame.
But interspersed with all of this familial sweetness are the extraordinarily loud bangs that pierce the air and startle me to jumpy gasps 24 hours a day. I've lived through three of these seasons - the first spent in Auroville, farther south near Pondicherry where from inside my little jungle home I sat, terrified for a split second, as I heard what I thought for certain was the start of some local civil uprising. I had no idea the bombs I was hearing were actually firecrackers. These are no small crackers either, these are Indian-style m-80's, cherry bombs the size of oranges, and bottle rockets as long as my arm.

Fireworks are for sale on every major shopping street during the season - with apparently no age requirement to buy them or parental supervision legally imposed in lighting them up, I imagine the emergency rooms are booked solid right about now.

Just two more days to go and then we'll be happily back to the comparable peace and quiet of our busy Bangalore street.