Friday afternoon to Wednesday night was thus, a long holiday. I was stuck though, because my colleague has disappeared to the US for a fellowship and my wife is six months pregnant with twins and under house arrest. Diwali was a good day though because my seven-day old nephew came back from the hospital where he had been admitted four hours after the birth for transient tachypnea of the newborn, a respiratory problem that sometimes occurs in neonates. It is also a day of welcoming Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth into our houses and offices. The first pages of the new office account books would be inscribed with a prayer using red ink and quills.
Diwali time is also firecracker bursting time.
The louder, the better. The most popular are ground-crackers and bombs, followed by the light producing ones such as rockets and fountains. This year though, under pressure from environmental groups, the Mumbai Municipal Corporation and the police restricted the hours of cracker bursting from 6PM to 11AM, which was apparently quite a relief for those whose lives are aggravated by the noise. The next week is going to be crazy with work. All the people who waited out the holidays, postponing their elective investigations, will now land up.