Burn Baby Burn!

Yesterday Delhi celebrated Desshera in flaming colors. Desshera marks the day that Rama (whose life is told in the epic the Ramayana) defeats the evil Ravana and thus gets his wife Sita back. Ravana, I’m told, was actually quite a good fellow and he’s known to have 9 heads because he was so smart. His only down fall, and eventual demise, was his kidnapping of Sita. To celebrate this, which symbolizes the triumph of good over evil, effigies of Ravana (and 2 of his brothers) are burned. Tons of these effigies are made of all sizes and colors and on Desshera all of Delhi is aglow with fireworks and burning Ravanas. We went to a neighborhood near ours called RK Puram to watch. When we arrived the street that these particular effigies were on was already packed. We parked where traffic usually flows and got out to try to find a good viewing spot, but couldn’t and instead sat on top of our car, from there we could see the heads of the 3 effigies, which were about 20 or 30 feet tall. The view from cartop was spectacular: a street flooded with people and with trees of balloons that vendors were trying to sell floating in their midst and fireworks overhead. Over a loud speaker we could hear the play of the Ramayana being acted out in Hindi, I could at least understand the evil “HAHAHA” of Ravana and the enthusiastic “Jai!” of the crowd when prompted by the actor of Rama. The big fireworks went off right before Ravana was killed. Then, in a blast, the whole 30 foot, beautifully painted effigy was eaten by flames in a matter of seconds – it was aaawesome! As soon as Ravana was torched everyone dispersed, so we climbed down into the car. I was sure it’d take us at least an hour to get out because there were cars parked hodge podge in front and behind us (my host mom had actually moved our car closer to the others while we were perched on top…she may be crazier than I am), but we actually got out quickly. While we waited in the car I felt like we were in a river moving against the flow because literally thousands of people were rushing around us in the other direction. Even that was quite a site. I’ve been told this is just the beginning of festival season, so I can’t wait for what comes next =)