Tag Archives: D-Block

A walk in the park

After three months of moaning about the cold and smog, I parted the drapes Sunday morning to find blue skies!

Our little park across the street suddenly burst into color with patches of flowers, so I forced my sleestak of a husband to leave the house and stroll through the gardens.

Grass doesn’t seem to interest anyone here, and whoever planted the flowers clearly hasn’t researched what to plant where. For example, marigolds ringed a huge tree, blooming on the sunny side and withering on the shady side, as would be expected. True, too, for the vast stretches of poppies lining the fence.

If we’ve learned anything as global residents, though, it’s that not everyone does things the way WE do things. And that’s OK. And I should stop judging and enjoy the park.

Blue skies!

See, it’s a GOOD thing they don’t cultivate the grass because these cricket-playing kids would just mess it up.

Napping in the sunshine.

Poppies! Beautiful poppies! (Admit it: You can’t say “poppies” without using your Wicked Witch of the West voice. It’s OK. We all do it.)

Ahhh, fresh-ish air!

So much strolling is hard on us senior citizens.

D-Block Diwali

We live in a southern New Delhi neighborhood called Vasant Vihar, which is split into several blocks. Ours is D like Delhi. Knowing Diwali night traditionally calls for excessive fireworks, we opted to stay around D-Block. To be more specific, we opted to stay on our sofa with an occasional foray to the balcony. Tony tried a few times to grade papers, but ultimately the explosions and high-pitched whistling of wayward firecrackers sent him back to the couch. We were slightly embarrassed when our landlord’s daughter came upstairs decked out in turquoise chiffon and sequins to bring us small oil lamps called “diyas.” Wearing sweatpants, an old T-shirt and glasses, I followed her out to our balcony, where she placed them on the railing. Downstairs, her mother positioned more lamps along the garden wall.

Lights are key to attracting Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. People leave electric lights on inside, string more lights on the outside of their homes, and fire up numerous diyas, which are placed inside and outdoors, in hopes that Lakshmi will visit and bring prosperity and happiness for the coming year.

Here’s another take on the illumination tradition from the diwalicelebrations website.

According to Ramayana, Diwali commemorates the return of Ram, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and the eldest son of King Dasharath of Ayodhya, from his 14-year exile with Sita and Lakshman after killing the Ravan, a demon king. The people of Ayodhya illuminated the kingdom with earthen diyas (oil lamps) and fireworks to celebrate the return of their king. … Twinkling oil lamps or diyas were there in every home and fireworks were there too. Great celebrations were held and everyone was happy for Rama to be the King of Ayodhya. This celebration took place on the night of the new moon of Ashwin (October-November). The tradition and the timing continued to be followed even these days. Even today Diwali celebration means happiness, fireworks and sweets. Thus the festival of diwali is in honour of Rama’s victory over Ravana. Among all the legends of Diwali this one is the most believed one.

I made a little video about our evening.