Last night was the celebration of Dashara and we went to see the giant Ravan getting burned. Ram, The hero of the Ramayan, defeated Ravan on this day, and so effigies of Ravan are burned in celebration. There were smaller Ravans set up all over the place, in almost every vacant lot and neighborhood center, and larger ones at the stadium and the police grounds. We went to the police grounds because it was closer and we had gotten a late start.

There was a river of people streaming into the grounds, and when we arrived a large crowd had already gathered aroud the giant Ram, about 4 stories tall. We moved to a place with a good view, and I found myself surrounded by crowd 2 to 3 people deep staring at me, and asking where I was from. Dolly moved over to where two policewomen were to escape some of the crowd, and I followed, and then the policewomen started asking similar questions.

A drunken Ram danced and swung his sword on the back of a truck as the crowd waited. I went to take a video of him, and as I was waiting for him to resume his dance, a man approached and started asking the same questions everyone else was asking, and then told me he was from the local TV news and asked me to step over to where his cameras could get me. I don't know if I made it onto the news or not.

Speeches were given, and then some fireworks were set off. They were set off from the same field everybody was standing in, much closer than American safety inspectors would allow. Some ground based fireworks were set off, too - the kind that start pinwheels spinning and whatnot. Eventually, they lit the fuse on the rocket that shot into Ram's stomach. The rocket zoomed off and caught the statue on fire, and set off bombs placed inside it as more fireworks were shot into the sky.