How do I explain Diwali, the festival of lights? The Festival of firecrackers? It's India's Christmas. Pretty lights like creepers hug cement facades. The city lets off a candescent glow from the yellows of light bulbs and the multi-coloured buffet of fireworks. The noise is deafening, the smoke is thick. The taste of gunpowder lingers in the air long after the paper trail of crackers settles in a heap by the road side.
I drove slowly through this warzone, ducking several times as bombs flashed bright and loud outside the car window. Two kids held little red, chilli bombs in their hand. I remembered playing with those. You light them in your hand and throw them at the very last minute, as the fuse burns right up to the red paper. I slowed down and smiled at the kids' ecstasy. The boys lit the fuse on a cluster of red firecrackers and threw them right under my car. My foot hit the accelerator and I shot forward, right over the speed bump and screeched to a halt just as someone set off a flower pot. Really, I'm not having much luck these days with kids trying to kill me in my car!
