Mr.Obama celebrates the festival of lights from White house, mayor of London declares it's diwali day at Trafalgar square and in India I declared emphatically it's a holiday !!! Well apart from lots of smoke and noise, Diwali symbolises victory of good over evil. For the sake of it we are allowed to pollute mother earth to our hearts content.

 

 

The decision to celebrate Diwali at Pune was unanimous though Varin(my son) couldnt vote(FYI: he's below 18) we assumed he was more than eager to meet his cousin..so it was 3 yesses for PUNE. I have never been to Pune and celebrating Diwali alone was quite daunting so we took the plunge. A good 8-10 hours journey by train to the land of "Vadaa paav" from Hyderabad.

 

I was lucky to get the tickets in "Shataabdi" and as always my favourite chair cars came to the rescue. The train is one of the showcase trains for Indian Railways, though I didnt have much expectation from it. For us the sky rocketing air fares left no other option but to take refuge of trains.To my surprise I was treated with mineral water, snacks and dinner on top of very clean seats all inclusive in the ticket. Forgot to add, they occasionally spray air fresheners too...so no more smelly bogies.

 

 

Nowadays I see a marked difference in the attitude of train travellers. The chatty stranger is replaced with a nerdy co-passenger deeply engrossed in his Angry Birds or Temple run. So why stay behind, I too joined the bandwagon and was armed with a tablet, laptop and a hard drive full of movies. No more chit chatting or exchanges of pleasantries with your co-passengers, just wear a headphone to say "No talkie talkie". Few minutes before getting down(after 9 hrs precisely) I came to know that the guy beside me is from Odisha and stays very close to my place in Hyderabad. That's digital age for you, where the whole family is sitting together and everyone is busy with their Facebook, twitter, blogs in absolute silence. And they say internet

is supposed to bring people closer !!!

 

 

The moment I landed at Pune I could see hundreds of Gandhi topis in a sea of people swarming the station. The white topi and the white overalls is quite distinct and gives a very austere look. It's mostly the village folks who have kept the tradition alive and it gives them an identity from the rest of the "Pseudos".I hope the tradition stays on and isnt lost in the name of fashion.

 

One thing that struck me as an outsider is it's really difficult to pronounce the names of places in Pune try this Pimpri Chinchwad, Hinjewadi, Wakad etc.Well if it's easy then try repeating it 4-5 times. Pune is quite a city and it lives up to the reputation of being costly,beautiful girls in every corner and the good weather. We stayed at a place called Wadgaon sheri, take that name for a change. Three days stay was divided into a day to mahabaleswar, Panchgani and two days exploration, celebration at Pune.

 

Pune is surrounded by the Western Ghat(Mountain range) with picturesque mountains covered with mist and no. of hill stations. The travel from Pune to Mahabaleswar is around 2.5 hrs but for us it took a good 4 hours as we were stopped by the cops. We pleaded genuine ignorance to the black tinted glass rule but our representative of law is totally unmoved, and responds with a crooked smile. It was my co-brother's turn to play his part as he is the one capable of delivering meaty dialogues to save us from jail or unjust poverty..literally of course.At the end it's a fine performance, but we still had to shell out few bucks to save the near extinct perfect pear shaped tummies of the cops.So the rating of the performance is 3 stars.

 

Mahabaleswar, Panchgani are famous tourist destinations and worth a visit. Though the city administrations collect quite a sum from tourists but the infrastructure dates back to victorian era. The tourist spots are beautiful but dangerous as there is little or no safety measures. The valley, green mountains and the lake render a perfect scenery. It reminded me of my drawing the evening view of a village during school.

 

The hotel claimed it had a view of the valley, not the best one but they had hot water and tea, so cant complain. We had a sumptuous dinner before calling it a day. Next day was shopping, strawberry picking and boating time. The kids had fun with the horse ride and enjoyed the boat ride while the daddies were busy pedalling. We settled for a starry lunch at a restaurant boasting of pics of bollywood stars who had dined there. Watch out for my pic with Varin next time. We reached Pune by the evening and except the Pune traffic rest was smooth.

 

 

We met a couple of other families and I accompanied them to buy firecrackers. The stalls were all assembled at one big bazaar, a typical place to bargain hard. Lots of varieties of rockets,bombs were bought at really cheap prices.Diwali started with puja,sweets and lighting of earthen diyas though chinese made bulbs adorn the balconies more than the diyas. In my childhood it was me and my brother who used to put oil in each of the diyas and then decorate them all throughout our home. Take that you lazy bums.

 

This is first actual Diwali for Varin and the light,loud sound did shock him a bit. The braveheart in me pushed me to light one firecracker (type: green colored big bomb)after 6 years, though shaky at start I was able to regain some self esteem by bursting it successfully . The night sky was lit with so many colours and it kept on thundering throughout the night. For many of the kids it was their day of initiation to bursting of firecrackers. The excitement, laughter and the sparkle in their eyes filled the evening and made it worthwhile.

 

The spirit of Diwali was unmistakable, people of all faiths, colour and race celebrated with gusto.I hope the goodness prevails over the evil in each of us. For me the kids,meeting and togetherness was the high point of the evening. With all the good memories we bade farewell to Wadgaon sheris, Kothruds(aka Pune) and  boarded a bus for Hyderabad.

 

I look forward to such memorable encounters again.