Diwali in India

Diwali was spectacular! It was like nothing I had ever seen before! Many people came for diwali and we bought this big box of fireworks. Another one of my grandfathers came to our house and we had a pooja ( pronounced poo-jaa ). My grandfather made these idols using coconuts and turmeric powder. I know its weird making idols out of turmeric powder and it seems impossible but he mixed water so it became a turmeric dough. Then he shaped it into shape of a god or goddess's head or body. After the preparations were done we started the pooja. When it was done we put a lot of fireworks. I lit a lot of flowerpots and whistling wheels. My uncle lit this firework that shot out lots of fake rupees. My older cousin collected atleast 70,000 rupees. After 3 days of lighting we still had a few more fireworks left. I've started learning yoga from a sage. My dad is also learning from that sage. He's 75 but he looks like he is 60. I'm doing well but I still need quite a bit of practice.

The village trip

We went on a village trip to see my great-grandfathers ancestral home. My cousin from Coimbatore was there too. The trip took 45 minutes but my cousin and my brother slept in 30 minutes and it was in the afternoon! When we got there we had a little explore around the house. My dad's father's elder brother and sister live there.My great-grandfather would walk miles everyday just to earn a living and he could almost become a dead man! He couldn't become a dead man but he go into suspended animation. That's when your alive but its impossible to move anything. He could slow his heartbeat to 5 beats a minute and sit there like a dead man. He could do that in yoga and after he finished yoga everything would come back to normal. After we did some exploring,we went to a temple and prayed. Then we said goodbye and we went to a kid called Roshan's house. There we were watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and we played on his Nintendo DS. We ate parratha(pronounced ba-ra-tha) with gravy for dinner. Later we went home.

The farm

In Theni we have a farm with lots of coconut and banana trees. There are many fruits on the trees. There is a big well there and now we have a crane for the well. Its only a small one though.When my cousin from Coimbatore came earlier, they saw a giant orange bat that was dead.When we came to the farm he showed me some of the photos he took of the bat. The man who looks after the farm climbed a tree to get the coconuts for us so we could eat them and drink their juice. When he gets down from the tree he use a knife to open the coconut and get the juice and the fleshy bits.

Soon I am visiting my cousins relative in a place called Kuchanoor(pronounced coo-cha-noor).

Theni

From Coimbatore, it took us 4 hours to reach Theni (pronounced tey-nee).There I saw my first cousin who had turned 1 (Its the cousin I mentioned in the introduction). My other cousin came with us from Coimbatore for a few days. My younger cousin's name is Shravan and he plays with me a lot. Both of my grandparents houses are next door to each other . This means I can go to both houses and see what food I like the best. If there is food I like or they are the same, I have a taste test, so I eat at the place with the tastiest food. I brought my Hoverpod to Theni and our houses have smooth marbles floors so my Hoverpod runs well on it. My grandfather owns a shop in Theni and I get whatever I want for free! There is a nice restaurant here called Western Ghats and we go there every now and then.

I am going on a trip to see my great-grandfather's ancestral home.

Coimbatore

The trip to Coimbatore (pronounced coym-ba-tour) was very boring. In the plane to Singapore, I played a few games and I hardly ate anything! When we reached the airport we ate in an Indian restaurant called 'Kaveri.'Then we had an explore around Singapore airport. We found this place with lots of new gadgets. There was a high graphic soccer game on the new Xbox 360, a touch screen tv and a chair that had speakers in it. Then we had to board the plane to Coimbatore. I slept most of the way through it. We reached Coimbatore at midnight in India time and 6 o'clock in the morning in New Zealand time! When I woke up the next day I saw my other cousin called Arya. I got some playstation 2 games for her andI was showed her how to play them. Thee next day we went shopping.

The day after we traveled to a town called Theni, where my grandparents live.