Shock and Awe

It's a little before 3 am and I'm on the roof of the one of the tallest buildings in downtown Thrissur along with about 400 Thrissur locals. We're waiting for the beginning of the fireworks show that marks the finale of Thrissur Pooram. The tall buildings ringing the central park and temple area in Thrissur are the most sought-after fireworks viewing platforms. Sherat has special passes to get us on this building, but still we had to get here early.

Sherat and I have been dozing fitfully here since midnight. If you come much later than that, then you might not get a chair. And since the fireworks never start before 3 am, you definitely want a chair for the wait. Plus you don't want to get stuck too far back on the roof. Sherat said that he once came at 8 pm, hoping to get a spot in the front row, right on the edge of the roof, but those chairs were already taken.

I'm starting to get the sense that these fireworks are a big deal.

Around 12:30 am, it started to rain. No one budged on the roof, not wanting to lose their spot. But there's an undercurrent of worry in the crowd--if the rain goes on too long, it will be too humid to launch the fireworks and the whole show will be post-poned a day. We're leaving for Trivandrum in the morning, so if the show is post-poned, then all of this sitting in the rain in the middle of the night will have been for naught.

Suddenly two rockets shoot up into the sky. It's just past 3 am. A huge cheer erupts all around us. Below, the streets are packed with tens of thousands of people. And then...nothing. We wait and wait some more.

Sherat explains what's going on. Over the years, the fireworks became more and more extreme, and after a few accidents and deaths, the city became more strict about regulating the size of the fireworks. Once the first rockets were launched at 3, the inspectors leave and the two temples each start replacing the approved fireworks with much more powerful ones.

At 3:40 am, the first temple begins their fireworks and it's soon clear that this is nothing like I've experienced before. Mark described it as hell on earth from a mile away. I'm right there, just several hundred meters from the launch sites. Unlike the fireworks in America, which are designed to be pretty, colorful and clever, the fireworks here are designed to overpower. The detonations are incredibly loud. You can feel them as much as hear them (and you're crazy if you don't have your fingers jammed in your ears.)

A huge plum of smoke starts billowing up as the sky cracks again and again. Here and there you can see a colorful display firework, but mostly it's just detonation after detonation, with white blasts of light erupting from the smoke. Over five minutes the barrage builds and builds until the final orgasm of explosion. The bodyshaking blasts start coming so fast, there's no space between them; my body is shaking like I'm in the middle of an earthquake. The huge column of white smoke has risen like a mushroom cloud over the city, but now there are so many white blasts flashing out of the smoke that it's starting to look like the surface of the sun. I close my eyes and it doesn't seem to make any difference. It's now all I can do to quickly blink my eyes open and closed. 

I look around and the crowd on the roof is exulting, screaming their lungs out with arms out-stretched to the cataclysm.

And then it stops. The silence is deafening, but it just lasts a split-second. Cheers echo from across town, gradually fading into a drained, post-orgasmic daze.

All I can think is "Shock and awe."

45 minutes later, the other temple launches their opening percussive salvo. Unbelievebly, it's even more intense than the first, perhaps because we're even closer to the launch site. There's a teenager next to us who jumps on his chair when the salvo starts. He gets so excited that he then climbs onto the arms of the chair to get even higher, his arms upstretched in excitement. I think no more of him until the final crescendo. It's so bright I have to keep my eyes closed and so loud, I can't even hear my own thoughts. Suddenly I feel something at my legs. I look down and see this same teenager literally cowering between me and Sherat. He's crouched down, covering his ears, shaking in terror.

Pictures could never convey the experience, so I didn't try to take any. If you're intrigued, you might just have to go some day!

Ian