Happy Deepavali

Its not your fault if you wonder what this photo has to do with Deepavali, a Goan Deepavali to be precise. Branded world-over for the beaches, coconut palms, feni, new year parties, IFFI and much more like casinos, cruises and churches, we did not have high expectations when we ventured out on the Deepavali-eve. "... the whole city transforms into a mela!", we had taken that tip of our friend lightly. It was close to 10 PM. But for the slightly extra crowd near the MG Road and the unusually long queues of cars at the petrol stations we did not find anything that told us what was in store - until we reached Fontainhas.

The thumps from a distant woofers pierced through our car doors as we gradually realised the empty road we had taken was no more. We were stranded in the middle of a traffic hiccup with a couple of cars and two-wheelers giving us company. No respite in sight; we got down. The woofers tried their best to shatter our ears. Waded the crowds and ... Woo!! What was that?! A well-lit, 30-foot massive four-armed dracula.. demon.. beast.. a combination of them was menacingly standing right in the middle of the road. Curled horns, dangerously black nails, shark teeth, bloody eyes. Huge loudspeakers were kept around. Tiny humans happily posed for cameras. Dozens danced around. But hello..tomorrow is Deepavali, are we not supposed to be bursting crackers and visiting temples? Well, for Goans this beast is Narakasur (the villain in memory of whose demise this festival is celebrated) and after such dances and merry, they burn down these demons before the dawn breaks and with that the evil is dead and Deepavali sets. Amusing! This was just one such beast we had seen that night; The narrow roads and wide streets were teeming with many of them. Each beast was unique in its own way. Some were painted fully green while a few were in violet, some resembled modern-day dinosaurs while a few looked like unfinished King Kongs, a few were almost-naked while others were royally clad, a few were gigantic and a few were baby-like, some demons were quite frightening while a few were really cute. Huge crowds migrated from one location to another to catch a glimpse of as many Narakasur as possible. Dancing. Enjoying.

No demon looked like any other. I heard that local groups took it like a prestige issue and wanted to out-perform each other in making these demons as creative and interesting (intimidating?). Even the local FM channels distributed prizes for the best Narakasur. Unluckily for us, the glooming rain clouds had made the organisers advance the competition. What should have culminated after the midnight was finished much earlier. Anyway still there were lots of interesting Narakasurs all over the place and one could not help but just sit back and wonder - how many more attractions will this tiny state offer?!