Last Updated on May 21, 2021
It’s probably the most celebrated fireworks display among all Indian festivals. Yes, the feisty, colourful pyrotechnics is also the most anticipated sights from the Thrissur Pooram, held every April in the eponymous town in Kerala, down in South India.
The overnight mega show of high decibal, brilliant fireworks on the penultimate day of the marathon 36-hour festival bring thousands of visitors from all over thronging into Thrissur. They line up the circular road around the large maidan on which the Vadakkunnathan temple is situated. The “Round” and the radial lanes shooting off it are jampacked with eager eyes and numb ears taking in the fascinating display of colour and sound that go off and fill the night sky for minutes together.
When it’s all over and the crowd melts away, all that remains is the smoke and the smell of gunpowder in the sky. And on the ground below (see above), there are a million little pieces of paper and shreds of cardboard in which the action happened – the remnants of a grand show that captured the best and brightest (and loudest) of the magnificent Thrissur Pooram.
The next morning, when we saw this lone man walking the ground that no one would have dared to step on the night before, it all seemed so far away. The noise and the revelry, the crowds and the celebration. But they will all be back in a year’s time.
And that will be another Thrissur Pooram we will all look forward to…………
