Carnival

On this sunny day, it is weirdly satisfying to suck the life out of the kaala khatta* which I realize is neither kaala** nor khatta°, just sweet and ice-cold. The exhuberant ambience sets in the mood for small talk. I want to talk about the hot sun, the swarms of adults, the smiling children, the stalls, the sellers, the sounds and the smells.

The human forms walking around seem like a mirage to me; they are there one moment and gone the other. My gaze shifts to an elderly couple sitting and enjoying potato twistatoes and laughing their hearts out. It is charming to watch them laugh. On the same thought… the senior citizen laughter club of our society does that too, laugh loudly at 7:30a.m. everyday. But that isn’t delightful; it is disturbing to many who sleep late after working the night or others who generally like to sleep late. Some residents even complained that they feel bullied by the act as the elderly are being selfish.

I guess everything done in it’s time and place feels right. But who will make our elders understand? It’s something they have great faith in, something that is exciting and is good for their physical and mental well being. So why is it bad they may think.

Goodness! I wasn’t supposed to do serious talk but how I get lost in my thoughts.

I look at my gola, its excessive sweetness and artificial flavour is killing me so I call my younger daughter and give it to her. She takes it away joyfully even after having her own… kids love these things! She is busy running from one stall to the other with her bestie. It’s surprising that children don’t get bothered by the intense heat, the dehydration or about getting tanned. Here I am sitting under this makeshift shed while my children are escaping it. At my age, a school carnival wouldn’t interest me anyway.

I suddenly remember that I have to call my cook and ask him to let himself in as we aren’t home. He has a Ram bhajan*** as his ring tone and after listening to it for half a minute, I give up and leave a voice note on whatsapp. I think about Ram. The whole country, rather the whole Hindu community of the country is gripped in his frenzy at the moment. I remember how I pissed off some ladies of one of my whatsapp groups when I politely asked them to refrain from spamming(they literally did that) the group with religious messages citing that it may not be comfortable to everyone. And how will it be? It isn’t relevant to all. For a non-religious person like me, this whole thing is a little too much. I woke up to messages that demanded that we ‘show solidarity to our faith’ by putting up letters of the alphabet as our DP… on a huge group of 400 plus ladies of all religions and beliefs… duh! Seems to me, when it is anything about religion, everyone leaves every sensibility aside. Are people of other religions feeling left out in their whatsapp groups?… surely! and intimidated?… maybe!

Pre-occupied, I fail to realize that my elder daughter’s been tugging at my top. She asks if we can leave in 30 minutes. Boy! I was supposed to be involved in the carnival.

You know, some ladies showed their disapproval of my message in the group (I had expected it) and said I was over reacting and this frenzy has got nothing to do with religion and that it’s a matter of pride for Indians. Well, I did feel like replying to say, ‘Pride yes, but only for the Hindus and India is made of Indians.. of all types!’

Some said things like, ‘How is our excitement uncomfortable to anyone?’ To this I felt like saying, ‘Doesn’t this sound like our laughter club issue?’ Like how an important activity of our resident senior citizens was a nuisance to the rest of us? In the same way, no matter how exciting, important or good(mental well being) the consecration of Ram maybe to devout Hindus, to others it doesn’t mean anything. Again, who would make them understand? ‘We are all a part of a larger group and we must act accordingly'(This is what was told to the members of the laughter club when they didn’t care less). Doesn’t seem to apply to the devotional aspect I guess.

One lady said that I didn’t have the right to interfere in their acts of faith or dictate terms… ouch! They certainly took my earnest request as blasphemy.

Anyway, am back to looking around. The children are joyous, their cherubic faces revealing that they are loving every bit of this day. I stop thinking about the comments I received, but not without smiling while this fleeting thought plays in my mind…

I too am a believer by the way; I am a woman of faith. I have extreme faith in the supreme power and divinity that resides in me. My faith doesn’t get threatened, needs no protection from external factors nor constant and rigorous validation. It is the almighty – imperturbable, unwavering and uncompelling! It is all encompassing and doesn’t divide, discriminate, demean or delude. That is probably why I am never proud of my faith; I am always only humbled.🙏

“Aama, why are you smiling?” My daughters ask as they head back to the shed. I quickly gather myself back to the present and get up to go. My amused inner voice says, ‘So much for the small talk that never happened… chuckle chuckle… shhhh!’ But I reply, “Nothing, just thinking what a lovely Carnival day it was!”😉

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*Kaala khatta – cola flavoured snow cones
** Kaala – black | °Khatta – sour|***Bhajan – devotional song

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This blog post is a part of the blog challenge ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla in collaboration with Bohemian Bibliophile.

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