Diwali Sunday

We are just in the 3rd week of our lives--adventures-- in Hyderabad and everyday presents a surprise, a discovery in our immersion course in the Indian culture.     I am becoming deaf with the never-ending, ear-splitting booms of fireworks from all corners -- Happy Diwali folks!!  Our neighbors are burning their huge stockpile of fireworks and its been an hour since they started and there seems to be no sign of relenting!  The noise is supposed to drive away bad spirits, a belief that is very similar to the Christian and Chinese new year's celebration both in terms of noise pollution produced and acrid smell of sulfur in the air.   Bernard said that with all the noise, there should be not many bad spirits left now.   He said that in fact, if they continue, they will drive him away as well :)  

It was actually a 2-day celebration, and yesterday there were fireworks as well but not  as much as today.   We have strung marigolds attached to our main door lintel along with a string of leaves of some tree.   Marigold seem to be the favorite decoration for the festival but we have seen also shops adorned with banana trees -- yeah, with the trunk and the leaves without the roots so they are all wilted.    Not to forget, are the diyas, lighted candles everywhere, as this festival is also known as the Festival of Lights.    For those who wish to know about Diwali check this out.

Also during this w-e we visited Sanjeevaiah Park in the Hussain Sagar Park and we discovered a well tended cactus garden.   It has a good number of species from the regular aloe vera, in the pics below, to a baobab tree!  Sanjeevaiah Park itself was not too bad and we even thought of coming back one day with a picnic basket as long as we keep our distance from the lake, it should be ok :)  More on the lake next time!

cactus that looks like a coral

aloe vera