Diwali and other enlightening moments

During one specific time of the year, India turns into a fiery battlefield...well, this is what most Europeans would think while spending time in India during Diwali. Diwali, popularly known as the festival of lights, is an important five-day festival in Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism, occurring between mid-October and mid-November. For Hindus, Diwali is the most important festival of the year and is celebrated in families by performing traditional activities together in their homes (thank you, Wikipedia...).
Celebrating Diwali includes several rituals and customs. There is for example a cleaning and purifing ritual. The whole body gets covered with oil, massage optional and afterwards you take a bath. Accordingly you put on new clothes.

But there are other customs as well. Celebrated in the same way as New Years Eve in other countries a lot of crackers and rockets are burned. The only major difference is, that there are no regulations for these crackers in India. Compared to an average German cracker, Indian crackers sound like an explosion of a gas tank or a gunshot fired close to your ears. This is why the experience for people from abroad is like witnessing a civil war in the streets. Nothing for the faint-hearted!
In addition rockets don't explode as you would expect at the peak of their trajectory (Flugbahn). They might as well explode straigtaway or go up, go down again and explode somewhere unexpected. Some risky business to light rockets ;-)

All in all diwali is a great festival to witness in India. People decorate their houses with chain of lights, the entrance is ornamented with chalk paintings and so on. They put a lot of effort in it! Very, very beautiful to look at.

Diwali has been a great time in India. We have been to Mumbai (Bombay) during that time and on our flight back to Bangalore we could see the whole metropolitan area illuminated.

However, there is a different story. I usually go to sports several times during the week. Be it for shuttle/badminton, tennis or squash, there's always a group or people you can join in with. Some indian friends of mine play there as well and it is always a pleasure to have a match with them. There are several ways though how to manage the way home afterwards...
1. you go by rickshaw (17-20 INR)
2. you go by bus (4 INR)
3. you walk/run home

On rainy days it is almost impossible to get a rickshaw to a reasonable prize or just to even manage to find an empty one. The bus is a good alternative although it is not really following a schedule. During rush hour, after sports, it is in many cases the best thing to walk or run home. Well, I gave it a shot the other time. And I had the most interesting experience. In order to explain that I need to begin from scratch.
In India there are many dogs. Living in the streets (most of them) and in houses of people (the lucky ones). Dogs are very curious about things, nearly everything. Especially about moving things (slowly getting there, but I think you get my point). Well, on my way home, jogging, I've had an encounter with a bunch of dogs. It is not the fact, that dogs are curious, what makes that story interesting. It is the fact that dogs love chasing moving objects (or human beings). About three or four dogs suddenly running after me I felt a little bit uncomfortable. Well, I had my sports gear including tennis and shuttle racket with me, I would have managed ;-) Luckily, when I stopped running and turned around, they split and left. True story!