Gudi Padwa

Though spring has ushered in a technically new season in Mumbai, there is hardly anything new in the weather. It’s all hot and messy. I sometimes doubt whether there is any other season in Mumbai barring summer and the monsoons.

Nonetheless the festival of Gudi Padwa, the local New Year marked on the first day of Chaitra, was celebrated with adequate zeal and vigor this year. It’s not a very showy kind of celebration. A rather low profile occasion compared to the noisy and long-drawn Ganapati Utsav. In fact, the only thing I actually experienced on the day was a break from the office (an unexpected and welcome one). However, the newspapers with all the snapshots and reports suggested that the people had celebrated the day in elegance. They also state that the younger generation was far less enthusiastic regarding the issue compared to the older generation. Young minds are more attached to boisterous discos of English New Year rather than a solemn celebration in keeping with the tradition. Well, I don’t blame them, I think young people have always been like that for ages, even those who make up the older generation today. What was rather odd and caught my eye on the papers was a bike rally organized in Navi Mumabi on the day of Gudi Padwa. What marks the peculiarity is the participation of ladies in the rally. By ladies, I mean serious-looking sari-clad women. I don’t know if there was some kind of message in the rally, but it definitely managed to stand out from the ones we often encounter, with bikes or otherwise.

(I was trying to find a photo of the rally, but can't find one on the web right now.)