Another Sleepless Diwali
How loud?
Well it is Diwali again. The most joyous and without doubt loudest festival in the Hindu and Sikh calendar (it is even a part of the White House calendar), diwali is celebrated with family celbrations, much gift-giving and the relentless, all night detonation of fireworks.
Calling them fireworks doesn’t really quite put into perspective the sale of the evening. Indian pyrotechnics are less about dazzling displays of light and more about the sheer viscerial thrill of explosions. Lots of explosions; unhampered by the kind of limitations imposed on such festivites in the UK. Morover, it is not unheard of for wealthier people here to blow 1 Lakh (about ¬£1200) on fireworks for one night. One friend was telling me that last year his neighbour let off a string of 5000 three inch petards at midnight…
…where did I leave my earplugs?
