supastahs

September 12, 2011   Comments (0)
 

beenceHouse warmings are such fun to attend. Invariably everything isn’t quite in place yet, the host/hostess can’t find the glasses or the bottle opener; the person who was to bring the ice is stuck in traffic; decorations aren’t up yet… but this one I went to recently was much better put together. They even managed to keep this lit for a good … uh, 5 minutes? Pretty, no? And symbolic, I thought – beginnings, ends, all looping around each other.

 
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happy D

October 16, 2009   Comments (3)
 

I know people who make the stars, but I hadn’t thought far enough to the people who make kandils/phanooses 🙂 This lady was on my way home after a walk and she was painstakingly putting papers on the frames and then decorating them with handmade roses – such works of art!
This is really my favorite time of year. Most building in Mumbai have lights and lanterns in their balconies – several even have color coordinated ones. Coming into the city from the airport, the government colonies look like multistoried fairy tale houses, each block uniformly sporting a different colored kandil: 21 houses with all yellow kandils, the next 21 with all orange, then 21 of red. It’s magical.

Which reminds me, we haven’t strung up our lights yet. How will Lakshmi know where to come if it’s all dark here? 🙂

 
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a mahal in Mumbai

October 15, 2008   Comments (11)
 

something mahalI was challenged by arun to do my bit as a blogger so I hunted through my phone photos and found this one – taken on Saturday as the light turned a particularly gorgeous autumnal gold – in Central Mumai Mumbai, somewhere near Lamington Road and Grant Road. Unfortunately I don’t recall the name of this building and my search won’t yield a result. I’ve passed it numerous time and looked at the various stores, hotels, libraries, and denizens it houses in wonder – marveling at how they, like so many Mumbaikars, live cheek-to-jowl with each other, sharing a bathroom with dozens, able to hear every nuance of their neighbors’ lives through the thin walls of their single room … And yet, this is the only existence they can afford. Do they see beauty in their lives? Or is that a luxury afforded only to people like me, zooming by in AC cars with an expensive camera-phone?
Khair, if you do know the name of this building, please share. Otherwise, I’ll update this post after the next time I go by it.

 
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