Diwali in Mumbai
Trip Start
Oct 09, 2007
1
37
42
Trip End
Nov 16, 2007
Mumbai (Bombay),
India
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
What can I tell you about the Diwali Weekend? It was simply fabulous. We shopped and ate, shopped and ate all day for the past 4 days, watched the fireworks and had wonderful Ethiopian coffees at Cafe Coffee Day and cold Mocchas (no ice, Carol and Jacq!) at Barristas.
Most of the stalls and stores were open, I felt sorry for those who had to work on their equivalent of Christmas. But at least those in the air-con stores got exta holiday pay - I asked. For the rest it was just like any other day. Well, except for one particular guy. He was in his 50's, tall and looked very stylish with a new safari suit and nice shiny shoes. Alan and I couldn't help but notice him and his calm demeanour - unlike all the others who jump up "Madam ... harlow ... excuse me ... look here ... cds dvds ...shirts ... hashish??" All sorts I tell you!
There was heaps of fireworks and crackers being let off all day long Fri, Sat and Sun. After 7pm on both Fri and Sun we took a taxi down Marine Drive to watch the families that had gathered with their stash of pyrotechnics - news channel vans were lined up to catch the action. It was full-on happening!
On Sun nite, we decided to walk all the way down Marine Drive from Chowpatty Beach back to our hotel just so we could be right with the people. Could not believe all the fireworks. It was a massive display that just went on and on for hours. Take the Skyshow and imagine smaller versions that go on for as far as the eye can see. The only difference is that this is completely funded by the individuals but shared with the community. So fun and so noisy and quite dangerous - two boys may be blinded as a result of exploding fireworks without proper care. Apparently this is down from previous years figures. Air and noise pollution are also down, although Alan and I cannot imagine how bad it must have been before.
The buildings and homes are lit up with hundreds of fairy lights and lanterns of all types and colours but red lanterns seem to be the favourite. I was squealing in the taxi that we caught from Bandra on one of those nites as we went thru several suburbs and we felt like kids in a candy store (happens a lot to the Travelling Children, huh?) We were going from one side of the taxi to the next, bending and trying to see everything possible. It was truly one of my happiest moments on this holiday.
Jacq - thanks so much for your comments and the info about Om Shanti Om being in the news over there. Over here, OSO has received favourable reviews, expecially from the viewing public plus box office business. The competition this year is a Hindi moofee called Sawariya, that has been co-produced by Columbia Tristar whereas OSO was produced by Shah Rukh and distributed by the local Eros International.
Serene, you would have loved seeing SRK promoting with such confidence on the TV. I seriously believe he actually has the ability to will the public into wanting to see him and only him. He's deadly charming and delectably dangerous when up to a challenge. People were on the streets happily having processions, carrying SRK cut-outs and singing songs from his movies! Bizzare! But this is amchi India, yaar and so I say ... Hail the Emperor cometh! The fact was while tying to get tickets, OSO was sold out and people ended up buying tickets to the other show out of desperation to watch something over the holiday weekend.
We watched OSO yesterday and loved it. I was surprised that I understood most of it inspite of the lack of subtitles. Alan said so did he to a lesser degree. We cannot wait to watch it again when we get home to Perth with the subtitles. It was however a very interesting experience to see people cheering and clapping. In one song they have 31 stars make guest appearences, and everytime someone came on, the people in the cinema ooohhed and aaahhhed in appreciation. Serene - you will have to wait until the second half for the disco song. But really my favourite bits were in the first half, SRK's character was very sweet.
OMIGOD .. Alan just pointed out someone in the street peeing against the wall! ahahhahahhaah the joys of sufing the net in India! Which reminds me, have to tell you - we saw a young mother washing her little boy's bottom with bottled water on the way to dinner last night. They were not beggars and were nicely dressed. I speculated that the little one must have die-die had to have a bog and as toilets are as scarce as rubbish bins - he had to go in the corner somewhere. Washing the bum however was done in plain sight of everyone! Over the last few days however a new campaign has began about anti-spitting and littering. About time! Let's see how it will be in 2 years time when we come back.
Gurmat Bhai Jaan - we have not yet found that place you mentioned in your comment will go again to check it out tonight. We have been exceedingly greedy here in Mumbai. The food here is too good man. We had the most amazing seafood briyani and a calamari cooked with chilli and garlic yesterday. Brendon, you would have wanted to lick the plate clean of all the 'sambal' - it was out of this world.
Will end for now. Bye all!
Comments
Amusing episodes + Deepavali
Dear Judi,
'I speculated that the little one must have die-die had to have a bog'....yes, I laughed when I read this from the way it was written, as I could visualise and imagine your voice if it was said in person. Washing the bum in public takes the cake, biscuit and fried po-piah as dad normally says.
We celebrated Deepavali at work last Friday as it was Deepavali celebrations in Singapore last Thursday from what I heard. One of my friends in our Maths department decided to come up with this and she invited two other Indian ladies to join in plus some other Indian men. All of us brought some dessert or entree of some sort. There were Indian Milk Cakes - shockingly sweet as you can imagine, gigantic samosas with meat, gulam jamun with the syrup, kulfi and lassi. I made some samosas and fried them up. Those who were asked to bring in some delights were told to dress up! So.....you can imagine what I wore! There were 2 outfits which I wore in 20 minutes (10 minutes for each one during our 20 minute morning tea) - the kutapajama and the maroon outfit with the gold buttons with long sleeves. Every one liked it and said that the kuta., was more Middle Eastern or from Egypt. Two of the Indian ladies wore saris whilst the other one wore a Northern Indian outfit. They looked lovely. The men too with the Khamis and Shawal.
Last Sunday was Deepavali food fair at Murdoch University. Remember that event? I have not patronised it for the last seven or eight years now, but remember how authentic it was? It was probably back in 1999, I found out from a stall vendor that Putumayam served with curry was the Malaysian style of presentation and the one served with brown sugar was the Singaporean version. I did not go this year, but I do have fond and nostalgic memories of witnessing the whole set up from morning to night during my 3 years when I was at Murdoch University (1996-98).
Got to go to bed now. My students have got their Mathematics Final Examination tomorrow, so I will say goodnight for now. Take care and looking forward to more stories of your holiday.
Love
Brendon