Festival of Nine Nights

Yesterday was Dassera, the final day of the ten-day festival known as Navarati, not to be confused with the other ten-day festival of Ganpati in September. It is a celebration of Durga, the goddess of valour and power. All over Bombay, there are effigies of Durga, shown to have eight arms holding different weapons as she defeats a demon, a classic depiction of good triumphing over evil. The ten days is meant to symbolize the stages of personal/spiritual growth, while overcoming the temptations of evil.
On the ninth night, my coworker Siddarth invited me to a Dhandya (no idea how to spell, pronounced Dhaan-dee-yah). He lives in a slum community in central Mumbai, definitely not a regular hang out for foreigners. My friend Sara and I were greeted warmly by the community, and we joined them in their traditional ritual of "stick dance" (see photo: very flattering sweat stains). Very memorable night.
On the tenth day, a play of Rama and Ravanna is performed in public parks, ending with the burning of a huge paper Ravana, who is the villain. Stacie and I went to one such ceremony, which was pretty scary. The Ravana was over 20 feet tall, made almost entirely of paper, which means it went down in a huge flame within seconds. Had the wind been stronger, the entire park may easily had caught on fire and I would have been trampled on by hundreds of Indians. But lucky for us, that didn’t happen. I even managed to get some good shots of Ravana burning. Hopefully I can get those posted shortly. Well, the festival season goes on, stay tuned for the upcoming celebration of Diwali in November….