Monday last week was another
holiday. This particular day is called Janmashtami and
during this day according to wikepedia this is what they celebrate:
The festival is
celebrated on the eighth day (Ashtami) of the Krishna Paksha (dark
fortnight) of the month of Bhadrapad(August–September)
in the Hindu calendar. Rasa lila, dramatic
enactments of the life of Krishna, are a special feature in regions of Mathura and Vrindavan, and regions
following Vaishnavism in Manipur.[5] While
the Rasa lila re-creates
the flirtatious aspects of Krishna's youthful days, the Dahi Handi celebrate
God's playful and mischievous side, where teams of young men form human towers
to reach a high-hanging pot of butter and break it.
So basically a group or team make towers to reach the pot and
break it. We all wanted to encounter this and we were told of several places we
could go and see the events. As always, we set of as a group to see set towers
around our little neighborhood of Bandra West.
But first, we met for breakfast, because if you have not
noticed, most of our outings revolve about eating or going to eat. This time we
tried The Bagel Shop, which we could say it is the Indian version of Panera.
The Bagel shop has indoor or outdoor seating and they serve bagels,
sandwiches, salads, and awesome breakfast foods. I ordered a plain bagel with Philly
cream (which is what they call plain cream cheese) with a vanilla latte. After
breakfast, we met other folks and set off into our adventure in 2 rickshaws. It
was cool getting into the tuck tuck and telling the driver "follow that
rickshaw". We traveled through several neighborhoods before we found one
of the places where they were going to do the human pyramid. We didn't see a
lot of commotion so we asked several locals and they told us that the
festivities usually start at 7pm, needless to say, we were about 7 hours too
early.
So that night, we all decided to meet again, this time a little
closer to home to see the pyramids in action. When we arrived at Pali Market it
was a different story from earlier in the day. Techno music was playing loudly,
the teams were making their way to 2 different places where the pots were
located and off they went. These pots were located in the middle of the road or
intersections. Once we saw the teams approaching the intersection in which they
were going to make their pyramid, we saw a police officer and we thought they
were going to stop all traffic, once again, we thought wrong. The police
officer was just directing traffic so the teams could create their pyramid. We
parked ourselves in the median, where we had visibility of both pots. It was
really cool to see way the teams created their pyramids with precision and
concentration and start forming and seeing them trying to get to a pot of
buttermilk that is 20, 30, or 60 feet tall. We saw several teams trying to make
a pyramid to knock the pot that was 60 feet tall and just not being successful.
A group of girls attempted the lower one and succeeded.
It was awesome to see how these teams work together to get to
the top and the amount of time they put into the practice.
On Friday after James' work we set off into South Mumbai to
the Taj Majal Palace Hotel, where the US Consulate would be celebration
National Day, or 4th of July. Although it was a month and a half late, it was
worth the wait. The reason for the delay was because both the Embassy in New
Delhi and the Consulate in Mumbai were getting new people in charge of them and
they wanted to partake in the celebration. Everyone from Officers, partners and
local staff volunteered for this massive event. Everyone had a job to do, but
once your job was done you could go and enjoy the celebration and meet people
that came to the party.
The party started at around 7 and by 8 the party was in full
swing. It was great to see the Marine do the presentation of the colors and
hear the new CG and CDA give their speeches. It made me proud to be on the US
Mission to Mumbai and once again, James and I realized that we had made the
right choice by coming here. After our duty, which was setting up a barrier
between the press and the stage was done and we set off to party. The party
basically consisted of two areas, the dancing and drinking area and the eating
area. Once you entered the eating saloon, you forgot that you were in India for
a minute. There in the middle was a buffet set up of all our beloved foods:
fries, burgers, cheesecake, and mini hot dogs, key lime pie. The food was great
and the people we met were wonderful. It was great to chat up the CG to Turkey
and her son, who invited us to Istanbul and the principal of the German School
here in Mumbai.
The party was over at around 10:30 and a big group of us were
staying at the Taj, so we went to the bar to continue our own little American
Party. We did not know were people were going at first, so James, Joel and I
went to the first bar in Mumbai called The Sea Lounge, where we enjoyed some
drinks. A little bit later we got a text from a friend asking were we were and
we told them and they told us to join them at the other bar Starboard, which is
also a Mexican restaurant.
After a long night of partying we set off to our room in the
14th floor of the hotel and slept like babies in one of the best king size beds
I've ever slept on.
The next morning we met some of our friends for breakfast and
then at the pool. Later on that day James and some other friends went on a
shopping spree around Colaba, where I found my new China pattern. That night I
treated James to a nice birthday dinner at the Starboard restaurant and ended
the night watching a movie in bed.
Last week was a great way to end our first month here in
India. More and more everyday Mumbai is stilling my heart. I am glad that we
are able to experience these fantastic things and how many great people we have
met in the past month.
Now a little bit of humor to end this great month:
Number of cows seen: 10
Number of rickshaw drivers that don't know where they are
going: all
Number of donkeys seen: 2
Number of monkeys: 0
Number of parties attended: 4
Number of times I have haggled with people: 2
Number of people I have seen doing their business on the
street: 2
Number of elephants seen: 0...
Seriously people, I was promised elephants, where are they?
Until Next time...
Nats
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