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ps: Mum at Marine Drive
My parents and me left for a drive around 11p.m. to Marine Drive. Its a ritual, every time I come down to Bombay, we as a family have to drive up to the sea face, or else my trip back home feels somehow incomplete. Today for some reason, Marine Drive was more lighted than usual. Blobs of light that run across the stretch of water known as the Queens necklace seemed to be using so much voltage it was almost blinding. Everything was lighted up and pretty. There were fireworks even. It felt like Diwali.
That's Jazz By the Bay
Happy Maharashtra day to Mumbai.
Somehow it reminded me of the sleepless nights and unbearable afternoons in Hyderabad, when we had to bear the wrath of the heat with power cuts. I kept wondering that if Bombay was celebrating Maharashtra day tonight, how many cities were paying for it.
In spite of all these thoughts I couldn't help but feel awe at the arrangement of the light beamers or whatever they are called that were strategically placed at every 20 meters or so, facing the sky and sending out beams that met each other and lighted up a portion of the sky. It was just so beautiful. I couldn't stop myself from pointing out each beam to my Mum like a small child marveling at the beauty of an airplane in the sky. I couldn't get a very clear picture, but thats the best I could manage. (above text)
Laser designs with designs of Maharashtra and different images were being torched on a building and everything was so bright yet so beautiful. In all this glory my Mum pointed out the moon to me, I felt bad, all this fake illumination had overshadowed the beauty of the moon, it was a full moon covered by a film of mist. I immediately yearned to by the banks of the river in Rishikesh where the moon would be the only source of light. Sigh. For some strange reason my mind went back to the lessons Johnson provides in the Vanity of Human Wishes-which pointed out how we mistake something to give us happiness, which is only momentarily and miss out on the real joys of life by running after the material.
May 2, 2010 at 11:14 PM
:) I loved this post. And, the end:)
May 6, 2010 at 10:02 AM
Thank you fishbowl. :) And this is?
May 6, 2010 at 10:24 PM
There's no place like Marine Drive :)
p.s. Totally agree about the artificial lights blinding us. We just don't appreciate natural light any more.
p.p.s. The focused beams of light thing sounds so good! I missed it :(