फेस्टिवल ऑफ़ दुस्शेरा Festival of Dusshera

Last Sunday we celebrated.... or more like watched the Indians celebrate, Dusshera--the culminating festival of the 10-day celebration known as Navaratri. The festivals vary widely based on the region celebrating, but all of them celebrate the triumph of good over evil. The production of Ramlila is enacted--which is an abridged version of the Ramayana--which depicts the battles between Ram (Indian God) and Ravana, who abducted Sita, Ram's wife, and the evening is culminated by the burning of the effigies of Ravana, his brother, and his son (the bad guys!).

We went with the McIllece family and their driver, Baldev, to his community celebration, where we sat in the middle of a big field/park to watch the events. Luckily we got to sit in the VIP section (meaning we had a chair instead of standing for two hours because we paid). After about an hour we were completely surrounded by throngs of people. A flimsy bamboo fence separated the seated section from the "standing" section and at any moment it looked as if the fence would collapse under the pressure of the hundreds of people leaning against it. Had anything gone wrong that night, it would have been a miracle to come out alive. It reminded me of the night club fire a while back, where all those people were trapped and died because they couldn't get out of the dance club when it caught on fire....

Anyway, back to Dusshera. I basically understood what the festival was about, yet I still couldn't figure out why it took them almost two hours before putting the three 50 foot, explosive-filled effigies out of their misery. But finally the exciting moment came and, one by one, they were set ablaze. Before their demise, Taylor asked Richard; "Dad, do you think we are at a safe-statue-burning-distance?". The answer was unequivocally......."I don't know". But we soon found out had we been much closer we would have singed our eyebrows. (OSHA would have had a field-day at this little event!). As they set fire to the effigies the flame burst was hot enough to make me a tad nervous, along with the deafening booms of the firecrackers going off inside them. But after the first one burned up without incident and the fear of being trampled subsided, I was able to enjoy the 2nd and 3rd with a little more excitement. It was quite an evening, I was really glad we had the chance to see this festival in action. Where else could you burn 50 foot statues, set off explosives and shoot illegal fireworks all in one night. My brothers would have loved it (pyros)!

Besides the flame-works my favorite part of the evening was Tyson's water-works. He had what I like to call a; "Calvin-and-Hobbes-moment":
Not too long after we arrived Tyson complained that he had to pee. Without being there, you just have to trust that what he was asking was next to impossible. I kept telling him there was no bathroom and he had to wait or Daddy would try and find him a spot to pee where someone wasn't already sitting or standing. Used to the creature comforts of home he would have none of that, until two hours later when he could hold it no longer. I told him to stand behind his chair and pee underneath it (his chair looked like much worse had taken place in its presence). He said okay, but then got distracted. Assuming he was going to continue holding it, I turned and started talking to Richard on my left. Tyson climbed up on the chair to my right. But instead of sitting he was kneeling on his knees. Next thing I know, I look to my right and catch a glimpse of little-boy-butt-crack and a perfect arch of liquid rising and falling in front of him. I was so stunned I couldn't speak, all I could do was nudge Richard's leg, who when he realized what was going on, cracked up laughing. All of the Indians around us who saw the fountain of youth simply giggled, public peeing is a part of their culture (but a story for another time). If I hadn't known how badly he had to "go" I might have been angry. But the circumstances were such that it was just one of those moments you chalk up to living in a third world country and say no more. Luckily the rows of chairs were spaced far enough apart that no one was "rained" on. Tyson was quite embarrassed but obviously desperate. Why he chose to pee off his chair instead of behind it we'll never know, but a great story for posterity.



Picture of the three effigies (before their death) and in front of that, our "vip" seating. You can see from the picture that the distance between flames and seating is not that far!



I'm not sure what they were made out of but it was HIGHLY flamable. Looked like paper mache heads with wrapping paper bodies. Gotta love that sexy mustache!



Kinda looks like we're sitting inside a coral...oh wait a minute, we are sitting inside a coral.



Oooh, Aaaah!



Why am I the only one smiling?



Picture of the "throngs". If you look to the right you can see where the fence is bowing down from the weight of people leaning on it.




Before...



After! Cool huh!