LET THERE BE LIGHTS!!

Diwali- Festival of lights, joy, celebrations (well all this is to be written in essays, but in reality Diwali for most of us is all about delicious sweets, tasty and tangy namkeens, a long vacation, meeting with relatives and of course all kinds of crackers!). Diwali is my second most favorite festival (Holi being first) and I liked the times when I used to celebrate Diwali without having to worry about number of leaves remaining, noise and air pollution, adulterations in sweets available in market and the ever-increasing price of gold! As a kid, all I used to care about what colored sparks will the cracker emit and how many laddoos will mom allow me to eat in one go!

Celebration of Dashehra and Diwali in my town Deulgaon begins with the famous ‘Ladit Utsav’ at Balaji temple which is also known as the ‘Tirupati’ of Maharashtra. It is a very fascinating festival where an entire mandap is supported by 21 pillars made of sagwaan wood. Later on the day of Ladit, all the wooden pillars are taken down at once. As a kid the thing we used to look forward to the most during Diwali was the town fair (yatra). Giant-wheels, roller-coasters pani-puri walas and number of ‘mobile’ tent talkies were all points of attraction for all of us. Even today this fair somehow is more fascinating to me than any other amusement park.

It is really nice to see that not much has changed in my town even after so many years. People are still happy to meet their neighbors and relatives during festival time, Diwali farsaan still tastes as delicious as ever, girls still have competition as to who will draw biggest rangoli in front of their houses, and kids still dance in joy after getting new clothes for Diwali. For someone who is used to fast-paced life in Mumbai, this is a nice and much-needed change. It really does feel awesome when you are walking on the street and every second person knows you and asks you genuinely about your well-being! No social-networking can give pleasure like this, nor can any multiplex can match the fun you experience movie in open-air tent talkies.

I could go on and on about Diwali in my town and why I like it but mom is giving me looks from the kitchen, brother is asking for help to put up garlands on the door, and I have to get ready to watch Ra.One in the top-class talkies… So I will keep it short this time. Wish you all a very happy, eco-friendly and safe Diwali!   

La Première

After delaying for months and well, some more months, here I am, finally writing my own blog and this is the very first post! I thought for a while as to what I would like to write about and the first option that came to my mind was the very obvious one- Movies! (No prizes for guessing why! :p) Then I thought since this blog is place to share my random thoughts with my friends, why not write about anything I like and anything that my friends would enjoy reading about. (And as the name of blog suggests, yea we can enjoy reading and writing about absolutely ‘Nothing’ too!)

I am going to start with possibly both the easiest as well as the toughest topic: Mumbai. Easiest because there is so much to write about this city that one can just randomly pen down thoughts and toughest because there is so much to write about this city that one wonders how much is possible to be covered in one article! For me coming from a small town, Mumbai was big…just too very big! It was so huge that I didn’t get the time to be all scared and clueless like how they show in movies! I just had to start running like the rest of the city. Like any outsider in foreign land, I first did not really like being away from home (crowded local trains, buses, and 26/7 floods did not help). But I was really lucky to get some amazing friends at St. Xavier’s and later my hostel. I had heard a lot as to how it’s almost every Mumbaikar’s dream to have a sea-facing bungalow. I (and 500 other tenants of my hostel) were lucky to have stayed at the most happening place in Mumbai- Marine Drive! It was after I got place in this hostel, I started actually ‘living’ Mumbai’s life.

Long walks from CST to Colaba and from Nariman point to Tarapur Fish Aquarium after college, movies at Eros and Regal, Chaat feast at Kailash Parbat, and weekends at Girgaon Chowpatty all this amidst heavy rains or scorching heat of Mumbai were part of my student life. One thing I liked the most about Mumbai was how nobody here interfered with anybody else’s business. It would be tough to find some other city where you could just go shopping on your own without people goggling at you. Another fascinating thing of Mumbai is how colorful this city is! Be it Gateway of India, Jahangir Art Gallery, Fashion Street or the famous Khau Galli, all these places are always full of so many different kinds of people all the time!

In my 7 years in Mumbai, I have lived in different localities, worked in various areas (saki-naka being my favorite :p), and travelled to almost all the suburbs. I did not even realize when I got adjusted with the break-neck speed of this city, I don’t know how I learnt so many Mumbaiya words, I was surprised with myself to notice that suddenly vada-pav had become my favorite snack and Mumbai had become my second home! I guess that is the thing with Mumbai, it will adopt you without even letting you realize (umm.. sorry for that almost poetic sentence guys!).

For me, all these years in Mumbai have been about exploring it and its soul and in turn learning a lot from this very fascinating city. Mumbai has made me tough, independent, little less worried about ‘what others are going to say’, and most importantly, an observant. Although everyone here is busy with their own life, this city gives you an amazing opportunity to observe all kinds of people. It is like being the audience and playing the game too!  

Like every Mumbaikar, I too complain a lot about the stressful day-to-day life in this city, traffic, pollution, never-ending rains, floods, and other stuff but when I come back to my hometown, and talk to my parents about my life in Mumbai, I realize there are just so many good things to recall- the amazing people,  view of the sea at Marine Drive, adaptability of cultures, never-ceasing fun, and last but not the least- the thing that cannot be described, written down or showed but can  only be lived- spirit of Mumbai!

P.S. I was super confused and clueless as to what I am going to write in my first post. Even after reading the entire article 3-4 times I am not convinced I have written down what I really wanted to…but I guess that’s Mumbai- ever-changing, unpredictable, and a lot of time leaving you clueless!