Category: celebration

Yessss!!! Ganapati bappa is here… gosh you should see the celebration to believe it. Mumbai is so decked up it’s fun. We’ve never seen so many lights everywhere… it’s like Diwali. Our society has this awesome Ganapti idol. While we were down for our evening playtime today some guys started drumming huge dhols. Bhai couldn’t help rocking in time with the beats and I did an impromptu jig (which obviously mama recorded!). We didn’t want to go up at all but mama and Sophia didi dragged us away because it was dinner time. There will be lots of contests and dances and plenty of music till visarjan. I think I LOVE the dhol best.

The high point for us is the fancy dress contest which we will be participating in. Mama is soooooo excited. I am dressing up like a fairy princess. I have a white jhanky dress which I’ll wear, I’ll get to hold a wand with a star, and if mama can make them, then I’ll also have wings. As for bhai mama is trying to decide between whether he should go as Laloo Yadav (which is very easy – White kurta pajama, pwder in hair, toy train in hand) or as a Pandit ji. Someone suggested we should go as Motu Patlu but mama said bhai will never forgive her if she makes him ‘Motu’. Besides she has a personal problem with bhai being called ‘motu’.

Rakshabandhan is our special festival because that was our very first celebration. Last year we weren’t even three months old but we had a lot of fun. Bua nani had come over and we had three generations of bhais and behens . I got to tie rakhis to four brothers. This year, however, there were just bhai, mama and I, so it was a bit of a drag. I did send rakhis to Yash, Adi, Varun, Tarun, Uday and even to Yadu. Gosh, don’t I have quite a bunch of bros? Yash bhai said my rakhi was the best! But sending rakhis by post is not half as much fun.

Anyway I was excited about getting all dressed up. Bua nani had got this orange and green lehenga for me long back and that was what I was planning to wear. It was all bright and shiny with lots of golden stuff on it. Bhai had a cool kurta brought all the way from Lucknow. Unfortunately mama gave away my clothes for altering and they never came back in time so I had to settle for a white kurta pajama! But then clothes don’t make festivals, do they? Besides, the two of us look good in almost anything and we had our neighbours oohing and aahing all over us. Mama made this rather amateurish rangoli, which we had a great time scrubbing off! I got it all over my pajama while bhai tried to eat a bit of it. Mama tried to put some mehendi on my hand too while I was asleep. Frankly, I have no patience with all this stuff and in the scuffle I got mehendi all over me, on the sheet, on my clothes and even on mama’s clothes. I ended up with a rather smudged orange patch on my palm.

Ishi didi had sent rakhis for both of us so I got one too. I put a tika on bhai’s forehead and tied his rakhi with mama’s help. Then I gave him some laddoo which he promptly spat out because he has developed a dislike for sweets these days.