May the glow of earthen lamp fill your life with peace, joy and prosperity. Happy Deepawali. Another way it spelled and pronounced.

Last night between 7-12:30 it sounded like a war was going on. The sky was lit up with fireworks and the sounds of firecrackers. There is no such law as size of the firecracker.

I talked to the guys at the receptionist desk and they said they were planning to shoot off some crackers around 11. I went down around 10:50 to go outside and watch the crackers going off behind our building. Just from the residents at 5 apartment buildings, it was the site of a small cities firework display on the 4th of July. However this went on for 5 hours straight.

As I am watching outside I hear an excuse me sir. It was one of the receptionist guys and he asked me if I wanted to go buy some crackers with him. I said sure. Then found out I would be riding on the back of his motorcycle. I had my first motorcycle ride as the crackers were going off everywhere. We get to a display. I bought some rockets for 150 ruppees, the receptionist said too much, but that is all there was left. We ride back to the apartment.

It was about 11:15 now and the noise outside is deafening. It sounded like a war. The receptionist has me light the first of everything. First was a mini bullet. That was about 5 fire crackers put together. Then the mega bullet which was about 3 times the size of the mini bullet. IT packed a punch. Then we let out a couple of rockets, they just went up in the air a 150 feet but did not do anything else. Then another guy came with a bag of other goodies. I will now call this the dynamite bag. The first thing he lit off was about a 2X2 inch square thing that was wrapped in straw with a wick. He lit that thing and 5 seconds later my ears were ringing.

Then they had me light one of these dynamite sticks. The wind started to pick up. First match went out. Second match I had close to the wick and went out. Third time has to work, but once again it went out. I should have known something was telling me not to light this thing. 4th match I am hover over this stick of dynamite to block the wind. The wick catches, but the wick is like paper and within a half a second it is done. My life flashed before me in that half a second. I couldn’t even get the word “Oh, shit” out in time. With my catlike reflexes I got about a foot away from it before it went off. My right ear is ringing like never before. I don’t feel any pain so I say a little thank you to god. I look around and the hair on my right arm is half fringed off. I feel my face and my right eyebrow, eyelid and right side of the beard are fringed. Once again, something looked after me on this. My hand definitely could have been blown off with that one or even worse. I was done lighting things after that.

Another guy lights another dynamite stick on the grass and it put a 1 foot by 3 inch crater in the ground.

After that I just watched for a little bit. It was 12:30 before I knew it and things were quieting down. I went inside and took a couple pics with the guys around the decorations on the floor. They were all excited that I joined them for this festivity. One even invited me to his siter’s wedding on 11/4, but I will be on a trip then.

This morning I woke up around 6 to the sounds of crackers again. I fell back to sleep and got up around 9. I look outside to where the kids usually play soccer and where most of the crackers were let off. It looks like a war zone. No one cleans up after themselves and there were burn marks all over the grass. 5 hours of lighting crackers does some damage.

My right ear is still not 100% but no major issues yet. The hair will grow back.