Celebrating Diwali with festival apps

A girl lights an earthen lamp during celebrations on the eve of the Hindu festival of Diwali in Siliguri October 16, 2009.

Diksha Madhok

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Lighting tiny earthen oil lamps is Dhruv Rastogi's favourite part of the Diwali festival, even more than lighting firecrackers or eating sweets.

But this year the 10-year-old didn't have to wait until Diwali night on Wednesday to light the lamps, known as diyas -- he could do it with an iPad app that let him choose the colour and size, and with a favourite hymn playing in the background.

"Festival apps are very colourful … they combine tradition and technology," he said.

With the number of smartphone users rising rapidly in India, developers are trying to create apps centred around the nation's festivals, which unlike holidays such as Christmas have remained relatively unexplored territory until recently.

Jay Jain, director of Astute Systems Technology, has developed two Diwali apps for the Nokia store. Each app has been downloaded nearly 50,000 times.

The first, Dhoom, allows users to experience firecrackers on their phones, and is especially popular among children. The other, catering to senior citizens and nuclear families who may not have relatives around to help out, provides animated instructions on age-old Diwali rituals.

Rajat Agrawal, executive editor of www.bgr.in, divides festival apps into four categories -- messaging and ecards, devotional and hymn instructions, recipes and games. A majority of them are free.

"When I was a kid, my grandmother used to have tiny (prayer) booklets,"

Agrawal said. "These apps are replacing those booklets -- and they would be very convenient for someone who does not know hymns."