All week long, the city and its inhabitants have been preparing for the upcoming Holiday - Diwali. Diwali is also known as the festival of lights (deep = light and avali = a row i.e., a row of lights). There are many meanings behind the holiday, but the easiest for me to explain here would be the celebration of triumph over good versus evil.
Hotel decorations
Decoration in my room. These flowers were so fragrant!
Ashlee and I shopped on Commercial Street for our sarees and
today we were able to pick them up from the tailor. We actually got a driver
from the hotel to take us near to Commercial Street. The address was so hard to
find because behind every shop and alley is more walkways of shops. We finally
found it and were able to pick up our ready-made sarees. All that was left to
do was go to office in the evening and have our mehndi (henna) done. Towards
the end of the shift, Preeti applied mehndi to me and Ashlee. The beautiful
Arabic style mehndi was applied in less than 15 minutes. Now that is talent!!!
Picking up our sarees...
This was my first time having mehdi applied. To aid in
drying, and to ensure the color stayed on, sugar water was applied. We were
told to leave it on for as long as we could. The longer it is left on, the
darker the color will stain. I slept with mine on and woke up to an imprint on
the bed sheets. Ooops! I talked to housekeeping about it and they told me not
to worry, “it happens all the time.”
Once we were ready, Ashlee and I went to the Jiva Day Spa where the ladies had offered to help drape our sarees. Neither of us wanted to show our stomachs, so the ladies had to get creative. After we were dressed, we felt like princesses! We met Allen, Judy and Rebecca for dinner. Allen wore his kurta and we were all excited to go to the office.
Once we were ready, Ashlee and I went to the Jiva Day Spa where the ladies had offered to help drape our sarees. Neither of us wanted to show our stomachs, so the ladies had to get creative. After we were dressed, we felt like princesses! We met Allen, Judy and Rebecca for dinner. Allen wore his kurta and we were all excited to go to the office.
The drive to the office was fun. Everyone was already out
lighting firecrackers. The party was going on all over the city. We arrived to
office and everyone was dressed in their finest clothes.
Zabi and I
I love how goofy they're being :)
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Gorgeous sarees
Vishal, Dada and Nanjappa. Love this pic!
At one point during a break from our training, I went up to
the terrace for some tea and other members of the team were there too. One
member in particular (a cute Indian that shall remained unnamed) also joined
me. We were out on the terrace, fireworks were going off in every direction.
Then he started to sing the most beautiful song. I was completely lost in the
moment. Was this for real? I couldn’t have imagined a better night myself!! I have a video, but I am on my Surface R2 and it won't let me post it. I will update once I get to my PC. I hope you enjoyed the pics!
