Sweets and Bombs (don't worry they're crackers! Not real bombs!)

Yesterday morning after breakfast, my host mother and I headed out to the sweet shop to pick up some last minute sweets to deliver to friends and family. We arrived at "Suriya Sweets" to a crowd of women, men and children, all pushing together in a mass towards the sweet counter and shouting orders over the heads of those in front of them. My host mother and I found a spot at the open door near the cash counter where she could pick up her order. We waited for about twenty minutes- me outside, comparing my metallic blue nail polish to the soft pink of a small girl's, while my host mother waited inside for the five bags of sweets.
We brought the bags home and joined my host father and host mother's sister and her son in the living room to watch a movie called "Cassandra Crossing." My host mother and I sat on the floor in front of the couch, folding small boxes and filling each with seven sweets to give out to all of our neighbors here at the apartments. When we finished we had sixteen filled green boxes in two stacks on the floor.
After the movie ended, we all went out to do a bit of shopping for the "men" at Shree Devi. They all hadn't gotten shirts to wear yet for Deepavali, so we had to go get them each one. Prabak met is there after his meeting- the store was SO crowded! Everyone seemed to be doing their last minute shopping at the same time. We had to weave through the crowds, sweating our way through the heat of the many bodies that all surrounded us. The highlight of the shopping trip though, was on the drive home when I saw the PUG again! This time we stopped and I got to pet him! His name is Pravi, and he is possibly the FATTEST pug I've ever seen in my life! He has a little stool that he stands on in the front yard where he can stick his body half-way out of the gate and greet everyone, so I got to love on him- petting, and (yes, Dad) kissing his fat little face! He was so cute! I can't wait to go back another time to love on him some more!
Later in the evening, my host mother, father and I all went out to deliver bags of sweets to my host father's sister's family and a friend of my host mother's family. When we got back, Piriyanga, Praveen and their mother Gheeta were a;ll waiting for us to go down behind the apartments and burst crackers in the street. I put on some tennis shoes and we all headed down. When we got there, there were already several families and lots of young kids from the apartments lighting off the crackers. The firecrackers here are SO much louder than the ones at home, but what is really awesome is, here the giant crackers are fully legal to light off from your home, while in Ashland (at least, maybe the whole of the US?) the big ones are illegal to light off from your street front. We had sooooo much fun lighting off all of the crackers! Some shot into the air (some shot into the apartment walls....luckily not into and apartment!), some spun on the ground and some exploded, sending big bursts of air and sound that hurt my ears by the end of the night!
When the kids got bored with lighting crackers. we all went to Sowbe's house and had a little dance party in front of her house. At first we listened to the radio, and then I plugged my ipod in for songs like "Mama Mia, Dancing Queen, etc." (ABBA is popular here!)
I went back up to the apartment around 10:30 p.m. and had a shower and dinner. When I finished, we all left with Bapu and Sanju to go and get mahindi done! We went over to a girl that I know from school's house- her mother does mahindi professionally and is the most amazing at it I've seen in my life! I couldn't help but just gawk at her designs while she quickly applied the brown gel from my wrists to the tips of my fingers. It took her about fifteen minutes total to finish BOTH sides of my hands, and the cost for mine, Sanju's and Bapu's? 300 rs., which is only about six dollars! Absolutely amazing! It's so beautiful! We got home by midnight, all of us "little girls" falling asleep in the backseat with our hands held up in the air!