Diwali (contd)

In most Indian cities Diwali has become a festival of noise and street pollution, rather than a festival of lights. I remember 3 or 4 years back we lived near Ulsoor lake and the Diwali there was horrendous. There were a group of young people bursting extremely loud crackers late into the night. It was just obscenely loud and it seemed that their parents also did not see either the pointlessness of the exercise or the insensitivity to the neighbours. (The neighbours should have protested, why that doesn't happen in India is a muse for a separate day, and why I personally don't protest, for yet another day).They have these grotesque electric crackers taken to the extreme that go on for ever (5, 10, 15 minutes and more). Nowadays its not so bad as they don't allow lighting crackers inside the apartment complex we live in, so we're shielded from the worst. Today I saw an amazing sight -- on a busy main road near my house near a messy traffic intersection, with 2 cops directing traffic, some IDIOT decided that he must prove his ownership of the road by lighting one of the 5 minute wallahs on the road. The traffic stopped for 5 minutes and the traffic cops did not feel it necessary to chastise the culprit. C'est la vie (en l'Indee).

Specific problem above apart, we need to reinvent our rituals and practices to be genuinely in tune and authentic to today's life. How does one practice Diwali or any other festival in the city in a way that makes sense ?
IIT Kharagpur used to have a contest between hostels for who does the best lighting up of the hostel with diyas for Diwali. That seems like a nice practice, encouraging beauty and creativity instead of sound.
The legends behind Diwali are pretty confusing to me atleast, they seem to be multiple stories and ideas. How does one relate to any of those in a modern rationalist world ? Can we find some essence of the festival and place it in a modern context ?

Another unrelated thought is how incredibly alive and vital some of our Indian festivals are, particularly Holi and Diwali. I can't recall such spectacular exhibitions of light (sound), and colour in any other country's celebrations.

Some self-indulgent photos below, as we played with a camera and diyas on Diwali

Happ Diwali

We win a award !!

Check out :
http://www.indiawaterportal.org/blog/2008/10/21/water-portal-wins-a-manthan-award/

Tried to pick up random images from the web. Do they make or break my point ?

Clothes

Some thoughts on clothes, particularly good clothes.

When we all dress up formally to go for a 'function' or a party, what is the sociological background of the thing. When a whole bunch of people congregate for a marriage, all very well-dressed, I find it looks somewhat absurd, like a charade or a show. Whom are we dressing up for ? What is being achieved by it, especially looking at it a society, what is the usefulness for society ?
Sometimes, there is a background or implicit contest among the women about whose most well-dress or costliest-dressed, but I don't think that's a healthy thing.

Probing a little deeper the question is about the difference between normal dressing and fine dressing by the same people. What is normal dressing (like what we wear when we are in the house, when we go out to do some work, or when we go to work). What happens if we dress 'normally' to a party. What is lost ? A first level answer which seems valid is the straightforward one -- we do some things every day and we do some things rarely. So we may dress more elaborately for those rare and important occasions. But that doesn't seem to be all. When you take the collective of a bunch of people all dressed up, it seems somewhat absurd. But the alternative would be that some people dress up and some people don't and that doesn't sound very sensible either. There would be a jarring lack of consistency.
Perhaps the problem is overdressing which one sees in India nowadays. Clothing that is dramatic and eye-catching is becoming common and its in such a scenario that things look overdone. Would a room of tasteful discreetly well-dressed people gell better ?

One bird, two eggs, two little children, two sisters, many colds and one lazy husband

The last four days saw our normally quiet house in quite a ruckus. My sister-in-law visited along with her two kids and a pigeon (again) started a nest and laid eggs on our balcony. Starting with one of the kids, then myself, Priya and her sister Himabindu all got various minor flu-like symptoms. The kids amazed us with their energy and occasionally irritated us with their contrariness. I didn't show a lot of enthusiam for helping out with the chores.