Shopping for fireworks in Chennai (Madras) India- A video

Fireworks is probably the most important aspect of Diwali.  Of course there are others items of equal importance such as new clothes and sharing sweets.  More conservative types will apply oil on their hair, recite religions slokas, take blessings from the elders, visit the temple, and finish all this by 5 AM.  Then they would start bursting crackers.  For the uninitiated, Diwali is the festival of lights.  It is celebrated all over India except Kerala, where until recently was not even a holiday.

I took this video while the young girl was picking up all the items from the display.  You get a four-page sheet from the desk and mark out everything you want.  Then you hand it to one of these jugglers and they go around the display on tip-toes like Ballerinas, and get the boxes.  After that you have another person make the bill for you and another person that collects the money. 

It is probably the most inefficient system I have ever seen.  There are people asking for prices, there folks with one item request, others asking for recommendation, and more folks trying to get out of the store.  In between all this there are gazers and the people that have already filled out the list for the purchase.  This is chaos theory at work in the ultimate possible way.

There are over 300 different types of fireworks on display.  There are all unique, as you can see in the photo below.

It was such a entertainment just watching the whole tamasha  ongoing in the store.

The real fun occurred at home when the whole family got together on the terrace (roof-top) to light up the zameen chakrams, flower pots, pencils, sparklers, butterfly chakrams, multi-colored rockets, and on and on.  It was a real treat to finally enjoy Diwali like it should be enjoyed- with family and lots of fireworks.

Can't wait until Wednesday, after nearly 20 years.