I laughed as I heard firecrackers popping behind the NPR radio reporter from Delhi last night. I wonder if President Obama realized he was arriving in India for one of its auspicious holidays known as Diwali -- The Festival of Lights?
That reminder brought my experiences of Diwali flooding back to me. Sometime during my travels to India I read that due to their 1,150,000,000 (1.15 billion) population, Indians' ears have adapted to handle 9 times the amount of ambient sound...a.k.a. NOISE...as us Western folk! My ears sure learned the truth of that statistic as an auditory direct perception -- whether it was a local bus blasting its air horn every few minutes to warn oncoming vehicles of our approach on a tiny one lane windy road, unexpected darshans suddenly blasting from loudspeakers at an ashram, construction beginning next door to my guest house at 1AM, or the wild abandon of Diwali firecrackers!
Diwali officially lasts about 5 days somewhere between late October and early November. Young or old, rich or poor -- Indian really get into their festivals, and to celebrate the meaning of Diwali, in addition to the parades of lanterns -- that means randomly popping off their personal stash of lights, a.k.a. FIREWORKS, for nearly a month at all times of day and night.
Even within the confines of the Taj Hotel, site of the 2008 terrorist Mumbai terrorist attacks (often referred to as November 26th or 26/1), and the serious nature of talks with Indian leaders on nuclear energy, they will be surrounded by the spirit of Diwali. May those discussions receive the blessings of the light. For more information about Diwali see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali.
No comments:
Post a Comment