Happy Diwali

It's been almost 10 years since I was in India for Diwali; Anu and kids were here a couple of years ago. We had a wonderful time at Chennai, in spite of only for a couple of days. The Diwali scene in India has changed quite a bit. There's more awareness to environmental issues - which explains the reduction in the fire crackers sale and use. The crackers are also getting more friendlier - most crackers display the decibel level and some even come with safety fuse that's timed to avoid bursting on the face.

The usual ones like, 100(0) walas, flower pot, ground chakar, sparklers, rockets are still abound. The fireworks display high in the sky, which is quite a crowd puller in the US and abroad, have become common place here. The night sky is full of beautiful firework displays - they are going on even as I'm blogging. They are out in full force. We saw few wonderful displays behind the Chennai Central clock tower on our way to the train station on Saturday.

Happy Deepawali 2006! Pics on our Flickr site