Deepavali lights up Vijayawada skyline

A view of the city from Indrakeeladri hill lighted up with crackers burst on the occasion of Deepavali on Sunday. Photo: Ch. Vijaya Bhaskar

The city skyline looked breathtakingly beautiful in the evening hours on Sunday.

Aerial display of multi-hued fire crackers dotted every nook and cranny and extensive rows of colour lights shimmered like strings of pearls.

The day started at a frenzied pace with people thronging the local markets to bring home bagsful of fire crackers.

The sprawling Swaraj Maidan where traders sell fire crackers on wholesale rates witnessed a rare buzz. The large number of vehicles parked at the venue indicated the good number of buyers queuing up at the stalls to pick up fireworks of their choice.

The multiplying crowds at cracker shops set up at every vantage point, in the post-sunset hours for last-minute purchase shattered the popular misconception that this year’s Deepavali would be relatively a quiet affair.

Meanwhile, many families chose to forego the ostentation in a gesture to pay their respects to the recent victims of the bus tragedy that claimed 45 lives and also to people who were pitted against nature’s vagaries like the recent cyclone Phailin followed almost immediately by incessant rains .