Kalaghoda blogs--Feb 4

Travails of work cost me my Literature class. So here I was at 6:30pm, outside my office deciding what events to catch at the Kalaghoda festival. More curses were uttered in my head as I realised I’m going to miss the 7’o Clock movie at Cama.

Masking the disappointment with the hope of at least grabbing a good bite, I head to Churchgate. Reached Kalaghoda at 7:24pm. Just as I’m about to reach, I get an SMS from a male friend saying, ‘Dude, the whole place looks so pretty!’…
Huh? Pretty?...my male friend? Huh?

The first thing I encounter is this kid discarding a toffee wrapper on the ground. The environmentalist in me spoke. “Oi…don’t do that…” With the toffee tucked into mouth, he gives me half a smile and runs away. Evil Child. Grrrr…More silent curses. His mom comes back, makes him pick up the wrapper and throw it in the dustbin. She gives me the same half smile. Now I know where that brat gets it from. Yippie…Long live the Revolution!

Enough of ze rant, now let’s get down to the meat. Kalaghoda on the first day was vibrant…and fabulous. I had a lot of conversations…with the crowd. Here is an excerpt…
Crowd: Psst…hey, come here
Me: huh…me?
Crowd: Yeah you; you frustrated soul
Me: excuse me?
C: No you are not. Here check out these pani-puris
Me: How rude (but I go nonetheless)

After devouring the golgappas, I just stroll around…

Here are a few things you shouldn’t miss…

1) The design for crow
As you come out of MMB, it is on your right…good stuff…
2) All the stuff put up outside Jehangir…right from the Bollywood paraphernalia; to traditional morph artwork; to children drawings; to the sketching guy (he’s really good); to the wiremaker; and the mint lollypop maker (this guy completely rocks…check the pictures).
3) The movies
4) The Akanksha stall…
5) Oh God…there is so much more…just go…run…

Here is where Mr C disturbed me again…

C: The puppet show girl…
Me: let me be…
C: You wish! Now come on, don’t feel shy
Me: (grumble mumble)

The sight mesmerised me…the crowd luckily pulled me to watch the last bit of a dance performance by Nrita Rutya the contemporary dance group from Bangalore…the secret life of Puppets was fantastic. But there was more…

I was left speechless by the absolute silence maintained by children around me during this performance. A year-old-baby is his mother’s arms was dancing up and down on her lap during the performance, another seated on her father’s shoulder was clapping; a third was standing at the iron structure next where the projector was kept way behind…her mouth was voluntarily prised open by the horizontal support of at least three inches in diameter, so engrossed was she in the performance that she was actually licking that rod…

Whoa!!!

I got out and moved towards the candyflosswalla…and took a huge pink fluff, moved around a bit more and then walked towards the station…

During the ride back home, I encountered a bunch of women dancing and singing to ‘Salame Ishq meri jaan’ and ‘Kajara Re’. Boy what an evening…

My Serendipity:Talk about embedding fashion sense into children from early on. This child in her mother’s arms (not more than 18 months) had her hair styled to a short a bob cut…but…but…but…she was sporting one long strand of hair from the base of her neck right down to her shoulder blade. :O She was not more than 18 months. ‘Hair’angue her mother I say