Diwali 2009 - St.Thomas Mount

Another Diwali has come and gone...Last year i got a chance to take
a picture of a touching scene right in front of my flat which showed
the true meaning and extend of sharing and i had blogged about it...

For the first time i got a chance to celebrate at Chennai...This Diwali me and friends decided to go to St.Thomas Mount as frankly we got tired of bursting fireworks n cooking and had nothing else to do...

First thing i noticed was the empty roads and closed shops...even the corner tea shop was closed which is a rare thing.On reaching St.Thomas Mount i was surprised to find that here too the crowds were very less, so we spent the time taking pics of the sunset which was clear from the height we were in...The view from there never seizes to amaze me as there are not many natural vantage points from were you get such a view...
(The man made vantage points a.k.a "High rise buildings" don't allow such an access to reduce suicide attempts).

The view from here shows you a big chunk of the city...On the left you can see Valasaravakam,Koyembedu, Vadapalani..Then in front comes TNagar,Mylapore and then to the right you can see Besant Nagar,Velacherry etc...
If you know Chennai you can understand its an impressive view...

Once it started to get dark, it was like a magic wand was waved across Chennai city...
The entire sky in front of us was lit with Diwali crackers especially the 'rockets' which fly into the sky and burst at varying height and in varying colors depending on their make.

It was the best Diwali gift given by the entire city to us...
Everyone bursting crackers and creating a never ending splendid view of a brightly lit sky...
At any time you could have around 50/60 rocket bursts clearly visible (not counting the smaller or distant ones)...It was one of those moments when you just fall silent and become a mere
spectator to the grand view in front of you...It was priceless...

The evening ended with me and friends donating blood as there was a blood donation camp running there... So all in all it was a pretty satisfactory Diwali...

I have added a low resolution video and a crappy photo shot from a cam with no shutter settings nor did i have a tripod...So these don't do justice to the event at all but i cant help but try to share these in the hope that you 'get' what it must have been like while standing up there and see an entire city go up with joy of celebration...