Oooooo, that's REALLY Scary!

Well, Deb and I tried to bring a little American culture to our Hyderabad neighborhood and we were very successful because there is so little American culture left that we bumped up against the Halloween cultural contribution limit at about 98%. If I could have found some of the orange icicle lights, we'd have made it to100%. For our Southeast Michigan friends, you might recognize Tom Ryan's "Count Scary" in the title. Between Tom Ryan and Dick Purtan, I have some of my fondest Deeetroit radio memories.

I must admit, we were competing with a BIG, and I do mean BIG Indian festival period: Diwali. The US is just starting to become more aware of Diwali as our NRI population grows. Oak Tree Street in Edison, NJ is, no doubt, aglow with its Diwali festivities this week. Here are wishes to you all for health, happiness and wealth this Diwali. But don't confuse the wishes for wealth in Diwali with the prayers for prosperity during Durga Puja which ended two weeks ago.
However, I believe you can still petition Durga during Diwali if she missed your supplications during the Puja. It's like sending Santa a follow up list just after New Years Day. Durga, in Sanskrit, means "she who is incomprehensible or hard to reach." Lordy, Lordy, have I had some clients who could be characterized that way! And speaking of Lordy, Lordy, we made up some decorations for Halloween. Deb wanted me to try to soften the scary parts so I found a few graphics that were "kid friendly", but I couldn't help myself and found a Tammy Faye photo that I used for our candy compote pumpkin. See the similarities?



I do hope that Tammy Faye rests in peace, though her fashion sense will tragically live on in parts of Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, and, well, you get it.

But Deb and part of her crew had fun on Halloween so we had Hindus and Muslims celebrating a pagan ritual connected to Christianity. I just love India! Here are some of the highlights.

They started out at the bowling alley. Deb had been wearing bowling shoes before this picture. Some other players on the lanes next to us bowled barefoot.

You guess who you are by asking questions. Deb was Bill Gates.
We had bobbing for apples

And tossing water balloons.

And carved pumpkins. There were no large pumpkins like we're used to in the US because they would be eaten before they could be carved.

And we mixed the Diwali and Halloween themes which was another China Town-Faye Dunaway revelation moment.

But everyone seemed to have a great time. And the spider on the balloons was a decoration. I've only found cockroaches that big.

We hope everyone had a great Halloween and are getting pumped up for the holidays that will be upon you shortly. Sadly, Deb does not have Thanksgiving off here in Hyderabad and when you say "drumsticks" in India, here's what you get:
Have a great day!