Merrymaking in Mumbai

Merrymaking in Mumbai

I sigh heavily as I struggle to drive around Mumbai this week. Diwali is almost a month away but revelers are out in strength. The merrymaking in Mumbai is a serious business, festivals provide flurry and fury to it. The makeover of Mumbai markets is in progress as I drive on Lady Jamshedji Tata road, an arterial shopping district. Shopkeepers are cleaning, painting, and sprucing their shops. Small boys are vigorously hanging strings of lights and balloons with the gusto that makes a recluse in me uneasy.

A quick burst of honking wakes me up from my melancholy. I sigh again realizing that we are not likely to leave festivals behind in Mumbai. They appear in an unending frenzy throwing our lives out of gear, yet bringing goodwill and gaiety that the city is always longing.

Diwali and Christmas is the king of the city's festivals. Ramazan/Eid, Durga puja, and Ganesh festivals rank next, Holi and Janmastemi just below that. Mumbai appears in a permanent festive mood with such an impressive list. Sights, sounds, and smells, of these festivals, linger in the air throughout the year, making Mumbai eternally vibrant and rousing.

Mumbai is a multi-ethnic place, benign and benevolent to the diversity, thus making it a staging area for a wide spectrum of festivals, where religious and cultural practices from all parts of India coexist and celebrate in harmony.

The month of Ramazan, culminating into Eid Ul Fitr in mid-June make up for a vastly holy and incredibly colorful festival. I sense stirring of Ramazan festivities way ahead at end of April when I drive past the Mahim Dargah of Hazrat Makhdum Fakih Ali and Minara masjid on Mohamad Ali road, both alive with a swift burst of energy.

A visit to the Minara masjid in the evening instantly envelope us with sound, lights, and action of animated chatter, brightly clothed young and old, and irresistible smells of kababs, tikkas, kulfi-falooda and ferni, enshrouding visitors in a vast cloud of food, fun, and frolic.

Bandra where we live is predominantly a catholic residential enclave. We begin to sniff and smell the arrival of Christmas much before resting in Mumbai. Half a dozen churches surround our home. Their bells chime early and late to keep us warned that Santa is on his way.

Every home sets up strings of lights and Christmas Trees, stocks up food and wine before the wine shop shuts for a break. Music remains in the air for over a fortnight. The Catholic community is not alone in celebrating this festival. Every community of the city gets on the bandwagon of making merriment.

The festivals pass by me silently. I am not an active actor in the festivities. I watch people around me doing all the song and dance, meeting and greetings, eating, and chatting. I continue to hide behind my daily routine, my walks, wearing Jeans and a t-shirt, going to the coffee shop, having a drink on my swing.

But that is just I and has nothing to do with the spirit of the festival around me that I greatly admire and cherish. After all, in this city as I said, there are no escaping festivals.

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