Diwali

Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, symbolises the victory of light over darkness. It's a great period of festivity and excitement: families exchange presents, traditional Indian sweets are sold by the dozen, and everyone - and I mean everyone, even tree year-old kids - sets off fireworks.

Besides the continuous explosions, which went on for several weeks (day and night), seeing the people of Delhi carry on this century-long tradition was a heart-warming experience.

A man making indian sweets 

Fireworks are great... until you can't breathe anymore. After Diwali, the pollution levels rise to the point where walking in a park feels like standing behind a car's exhaust pipe. The air will get better in spring, but it's gonna be hard to hold by breath until then. 

Dussehra comes a few weeks before Diwali, and it's another important Hindu festival where people burn effigies of Ravana, a ten-headed king. To be honest, the idea of burning effigies filled with firecrackers a few meters from trees and houses and with no firemen in sight scared me a little- especially when little toddlers were casually walking about with fireworks and matches in their hands.