ROARY THE ROVING REPORTER
A DIWALI INDIAN ADVENTURE
India is a beautiful country in Asia. It has the Himalaya mountains to the north and the rest of the country is surrounded by the Indian Ocean. It has a huge number of people living there. In fact there are more people living in the three largest cities in India (Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata) than in the whole of the UK ... Roary was going to find India very busy indeed!
Roary was keen to learn all about India. He had arranged to meet up with his friend Lotus, a little sandy coloured yeti who lived in the grounds of the Golden Temple at Amritsar. Lotus was very excited to see Roary especially as the temple was getting ready for the Sikh festival of lights, Diwali.
Roary and Lotus scurried through the streets, dodging zooming tuk-tuks (funny little 3 wheeled taxis) and brightly painted cows. They saw women and children decorating their front door steps with beautiful colourful patterns, older boys and girls helping to string garlands of flowers from the rooftops and people selling colourful little lamps from street stalls ... everyone seemed excited and happy!
As they got closer to the temple, and as night fell, Roary noticed that some people were sitting in front of what looked like a big white sheet that was lit from behind. “What’s Happening Lotus?” he asked.
Ooh! They’re getting ready to tell the story of Rama and Sita using the shadow puppets exclaimed Lotus excitedly. Let’s sit down by this rock and watch.”
As they settled down the story teller started his tale:
Ravana , a demon king with twenty arms and ten heads was feared by everyone, and was jealous of Rama … he wanted to make Sita his wife. One day Ravanna kidnapped Sita and took her away in his chariot. Sita loved Rama very much and knew he would try to find her so she left a trail of her jewellery for Rama to follow.
Rama set off following the trail of glittering jewellery. On his way he met Hanuman, the monkey king. Hanuman became Rama’s friend and agreed to help find Sita. Messages were sent to all the monkeys in the world, and the monkeys told the bears who also agreed to help and the all set out to find Sita.
Rama and Sita began their long journey back to their land, and everybody lit oil lamps to guide them on their way home and to celebrate the victory over evil.
Every year, people light lamps at Diwali to remember that light outshines darkness and good triumphs over evil.
As the story ended Roary let out a gasp of delight as fireworks erupted in the sky over the Golden Temple. Diwali really was a festival of light!
DIWALI FUN
HELP THE SACRED DEWALI COW FIND IT'S WAY OUT OF THE GOLDEN TEMPLE
CLICK AND PRINT
Roary asked Lotus to tell him more about the colourful patterns they had seen on the doorsteps of the village. He told him all about RANGOLI PATTERNS, and how they're made with coloured sand. Rory was excited to have a go himself on a doorway nearby!
Why don't you design your own Rangoli Patterns or try making a fireworks picture by clicking on Rory's photos.
