Amaravati, Nov 15 (IANS): Most places in Andhra Pradesh escaped rain fury on Diwali day to celebrate one of the major festivals on the Telugu calendar with pyrotechnics sans green crackers.
Though the Met department had forecast rainfall in some parts of the state, all the 19 geographically distributed monitored places did not witness rainfall till 5:30 p.m., even as it is not clear yet if any place witnessed rainfall later.
The monitored places included Bapatla, Kakinada, Kalingapatnam, Kavali, Machilipatnam, Nandigama, Narasapuram, Nellore, Ongole, Jangamaheswarapuram, Tuni, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam. Others included Anantapur, Arogyavaram, Kadapa, Kurnool, Tirupati and Amaravati.
The Diwali day ended up as a pleasant sunny day in Bhimavaram and its vicinity, including villages such as Seesali, Kalla, Doddanapudi, Chinnapulleru, Kallakuru and others.
Though the government had ordered that only green crackers should be used for the festival, people gleefully ignored the directives to burn all kinds of crackers and it is not clear as to how many used green crackers at all.
The Andhra Pradesh government had even specified that green crackers will be allowed only for two hours from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday.
In Chittoor district, the police even made announcements about Diwali rules, going around with a public address system in a jeep.
"I asked for green crackers at a shop but the vendor didn't even know what green crackers were," Talluri Raj Kumar, a resident of Kalla near Bhimavaram, told IANS.
Most people resorted to burning crackers quite early after dusk in the villages located on Juvvalapalem Road in West Godavari district.
By 9 p.m., most finished burning their quota of crackers. All the roads were strewn with crackers debris.
However, a good number of young men continued to indulge in pyrotechnics even after majority of the people wound up their festivities.
In Kalla village, two groups of young men dueled with each other from opposing sides near the Ramalayam on Bhimavaram-Gudivada main road with 'tarajuvvalu' (rockets), a decades old local custom.
Instead of lofting the 'tarajuvvalu', they zoom them on the road towards each other.
Commemorating Diwali, many people decked up their houses with colourful lighting and rows of earthen lamps.
Near Sri Venkateshwara Temple in Kallakuru village, a few people whitewashed their homes while some painted them anew.
Sadly, the old skill of making 'patebigayalu', crackers made of palmyra leaves encased with combustible power, seemed to be losing popularity.
Like 'patebigayalu', 'tarajuvvalu' is also handmade and is on the decline.
Luckily, most cracker vendors in Kalla managed to sell all their wares, despite signs of low business on Friday.
Overall, Diwali ended up on a happy note without rain disruption bu the celebrations were definitely toned down due to the coronavirus pandemic.