Selamat Hari Deepavali dari New Delhi

Am in my apartment typing away while it's a veritable war zone outside - all houses are lit like million fireflies have alighted upon their windows, fireworks in all its pyrotechnic glory and drums on the street.......there are booms, bangs and crackles every second with no pause.......
I had a lovely, lovely day - lunch at KK's where I met an Australian chef who worked for a seafood restaurant in Melbourne. He and our Italian intern whipped up a feast and served it to KK and myself in her beautiful balcony with an overhanging tree, dimpled sunlight and the cool Ocotber breeze. With music in the background, good food and great company we spent the afternoon in complete contentment. Then the star the day appeared - a Malaysian from Kedah who is a tango fanatic - I know KK has been trying to track him down eversince we got here. He was a riot - speaks Spanish, French and German in a thick Chinese accent and insists that we come for a tango night this Friday......
I spent Diwali dinner with my landlady after the busy morning she spent with her family. I woke up this morning to find little white footprints all over the building......and saw Auntiji praying and stamping the floor with attar flour which left the imprint of the foot, representing the visitation of Lord Krishna to the home, a good omen. She blessed me and gave me prashad (sweet) and stained my forehead with red kum kum. At night, she told me a story about Goddess Lakshmi, which is a traditional story told within the family year after year. The story is of a king with 5 wives - when the Goddess Lakshmi briefly visited their home and asked the wives what gifts they wanted before she left, they each made their demands except for one who said that she only wanted peace (shanti) - to which the Goddess replied that for as long as there was peace, she could not leave their home. This is therefore the moral of the story - for God to reside within, all you need is peace.
I left Auntiji and went with her lovely manservant Druv to the street below where we lit firecracker after firecracker with the neighbours and their children. There were boxes and boxes of the stuff and they made me light a few - I singed my eyebrow in the process and am sure a spark landed on my head because the spot is burning now - some of it was downright terrifying and as I am such a silly screamer (I scream at most scary things) this was somehow a source of great amusement to the street dwellers and as a result I was made to participate wholeheartedly while they offered me sweets and called me their daughter/sister. I tried to decline after a while, convinced I would burn down at least one of their houses, but could not bring myself to as Druv looked at me plaintively and said " But Didi (sister), this is Diwali".....
I left at last waving goodbye and wolfing down my last pista barfi making for cover from the already thick smoky street dodging the sparks amidst the heart-stopping booms.....
Festival of Lights, indeed!