Diwali is a major Indian holiday where people light firecrackers non-stop for days. Venkat drove us around for a tour of the city that day including the Chennai Snake Park, the old British area of the city, the Marina beach, a major Hindu temple (Mylapore) where people line up to get some flowers from priests and have their food blessed before they go home and eat, and a church where one of the original 12 apostles (Thomas) is buried. I had no idea there was an apostle buried in India. This place is full of surprises.
That night, Arul invited us over to his house. His son, Boopala, was so excited to see us. He had made cards for us and wanted to show us his school projects and legos. He's a very smart and articulate kid. The fireworks going off around the house were so loud it sounded like we were in a war.
The previous night we had bought three big bags worth of fireworks (all for $40) which we brought to Arul's to add to his stockpile. Over the course of the next hour or so in muggy haze of sulfurous gas, we light all the fireworks. Boopala was gitty watching us setting them off. Even Arul's pregnant wife helped us out by lighting sparklers which we then used to light the other stuff. It was a blast (pun intended, ha ha)
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