Technicolor Explosions in the Sky, Blackened Boogers in My Nose
I have been republishing the blog I did when I travelled to India back in 2004. This is the third installment.
Saturday, November 13, 2004
Well, the fiery display was incredibly amazing, with literally tons of sparklers, whistling chasers, ladyfingers and huge boomers that resemble small velvet pillows being set off everywhere. The downside to this was that the air quality in the city became just slightly better than living in a tailpipe. Walking away from the diplay at the end of the evening was like a breath of fresh air, which is saying something for a city that the Lonely Planet guide claims has air so poor that under normal conditions breathing it is the equivalent of smoking a pack a day. I need to buy another two-ply hanky, or just get the hell out of here.
I didn’t contribute to the madness by buying anything, but I was certainly closer to some of the explosions than if I had actually lit them myself. The swirling masses and severe pyrotechnics were not nearly as intense as the State Department had warned (hmmm, a consistent overreation for the gov?), but it did amount to the largest single personal fireworks display I have ever seen. There is a strip of denuded land, save a long row of palm trees, between the Arabian Sea and Marine Dr which is fifty feet wide and 4 miles long. Families squeezed their vehicles illegally along the Drive and set up their personal pyrotechnics camps on this strip. Walking along the length of this strip can put you at risk– you never know who has set what off where, and I have small burns on my neck and forearm and some singed hair on my head to prove it.
The comedy of the evening was provided by a father who was showing off to his family, and accidentally set off a large packet of lady fingers at about waste level. You remember how in cartoons when a character’s face has been blackened because of an exploding cigar? Well, that’s what this guy’s crotch resembled after the smoke cleared. He was laughing at his foolishness while batting at the smoldering embers in his khakis. The family laughed. I laughed. I think we were mostly relieved that he hadn’t lost any appendages.
Lest we all be consumed by the huge pile of fireworks packaging that was being produced, there was a pickup firecracker paper wallah who would run around like an insane dog and put ephemera into a huge plastic bag. I wished I could of gotten a image of one of these guys running in traffic down Marine Drive with one of these plastic bags balanced on their heads. Amazing.
Everyone is happy and welcoming on Diwali. I heard many “Welcome to Mumbai”s, and went to visit my friend at my favorite Sweets store in Colaba (a separate entry for this incredible place later), and rocked out on a righteous Punjabi Thali before heading down to the big show.
My time in Mumbai is limited for this part of the trip. But I’ll be back, but the reason is a secret. My next step will be the capitol of Gujarat, Ahmedabad, and then on to Rajasthan. I’ve tried to get my digital camera photos burned on to a cd, but Diwali keeps all the stores closed for three full days this weekend. Hopefully I’ll track down a place to do this for me in Ahmedabad on Monday. I’ve got some great ones to show you.