Happy Diwali!

Diwali is the festival honoring Laxmi, the goddess of prosperity and wealth.  

Homes and businesses are decorated with colored lights and lighted paper lanterns.  



Entryways or courtyards are decorated with rangoli, colorful sand or rice drawings, and sometimes even flowers, to welcome guests and encourage Laxmi’s blessings.  

At night little clay lamps filled with oil are lit and placed on or near the rangoli.   

At the risk of oversimplifying what my local friends explained over a delicious traditional breakfast of upma, each day involves different traditions, from pujas to offerings of flowers and sweets to the gods at the local temples; from ceremonial bathing and squashing of evil characters to gift giving traditions between husbands and wives, and brothers and sisters.  Myriad treats for a sweet new year are prepared and given to friends and neighbors and guests.  And everyone gets very dressed up, even to climb the many flights of stairs to one of the higher temples in Pune.  

One of the days was once considered end of the fiscal year for businesses, so many close and hold a puja to bring blessings for a prosperous new year.   With the standardization of the fiscal year, this is now just ceremonial. 

Money atop seeds for a prosperous new beginning 

In addition to being a school and family holiday akin to the winter break in the U.S., many folks leave town as local Diwali celebrators set off fireworks all week long -- both the eye-popping Fourth of July variety and the ear-blasting noisemakers of our New Year.  

On the plus side:  less traffic means less pollution. 

On the minus side:  earplugs may be necessary at bedtime.  It's nearly midnight as I finish this post, and the fireworks are still going on out there.

With the Institute closed for the holidays, a few of us made like locals and took a little trip outside of Pune.  Our destination was a favorite mountain retreat of visiting yogis offering a spectacular view, Aryuvedic treatments and food and an Iyengar yoga practice hall...the air was delicious too!

Driving out of town into less populated areas can put one into a new category of traffic jam.  

But, last night, back in Pune, we enjoyed the fireworks...from a super cool rooftop bar at the JW Marriott, far from the madding crowds.  All over the city one could see amateur and professional style fireworks appearing against the silhouette backdrop the mountains that surround the city. 

Happy Diwali everyone 

and a prosperous New Year!