Diwali joy and regrets

I had a happy Diwali. But some precious pictures are only in my mind, and I can only share them through words because I had no camera and/or no time to stop and take pictures.

1. People setting up their bedding on the street for the night on Delisle Road (N. M. Joshi Marg) under cheap strings of LED lights that decorated their shanties for Diwali.
2. Diwali lantern bazaar in Mahim, a little south of Victoria School.
3. Yesterday (Sunday, Oct 25), a police van illegally parked on the kerb outside Nanda Cottage, Church Avenue, Khar. I don't know if the police were there to investigate a local crime, or just on patrol for Chhat Pooja (hundreds of thousands of people were expected at Juhu Beach, and Church Avenue is an arterial road).

Still, here are some pictures I did take during Dassera and Diwali:

Below: Swastikas - an ancient Indic auspicious symbol that invokes good fortune - embellish a neighbor's apartment entrance at Dassera

Below: Fresh marigolds and stalks of grain mark celebration, prosperity and the harvest of the kharif (monsoon) crop

Below: Remains of religious rituals - red-and-yellow cotton thread, red fabric, coconut shells, marigolds and zinnias, and incense ash - are disposed of near the roots of a tree. The plastic bags and polyester fabric are unfortunate mutants of an environmentally friendly tradition of composting religious remnants.

Below: A giant paper Raavan towers over traffic on a busy road. Effigies of Raavan are burned on Dassera, to commemorate the victory of good (Lord Ram) over evil (Raavan).

Below: Clearly the 10-headed demon king disapproves of the way people drive in Mumbai.

Below: Dassera procession on Haines Road at Agripada. Cops were posted in areas where Hindu-Muslim tension may be a possibility, and also along visarjan routes (routes to the beaches, where idols of Durga would be immersed in the water).

Below: All the ladies were out in their colorful finery to bid the mother goddess farewell.

And Durga Maata deserves nothing less than a proper western-style drum kit mounted on wheels:

Below: Durga stands on a float, in front of her tiger and carrying her trident. She is flanked by three priest types. Traditional marigolds have been eschewed for colored gerbera daisies.

Below: Man selling LED lights in the pedestrian subway that connects Capitol Cinema and VT Station. This was a couple of days before Diwali, the festival of lights. The electricity is probably stolen or bought with a bribe.

Below: Rangoli (sand painting) at the entrance of my home for Diwali. I made it long and narrow to fit the threshold, because a bigger one would be in the way of people entering neighboring apartments. The swastika is not anti-semitic, just a wish for good fortune.

Below: The lamps are earthen, with coconut oil and cotton wicks. Some people say they are to welcome the victorious Lord Ram back to Ayodhya. Another explanation is that they welcome Lakshmi (goddess of material prosperity) into one's home. The adherents of the latter theory are generally of the business/trading communities who celebrate a new year (2066 this year) the day after Diwali. For them, Diwali is also the occasion for Lakshmi pooja (worship) , to open new account books on an auspicious note. A swastika is marked in vermilion paste on the first page. Whatever the reason for the lamps, the city looks lovely all lit up.

Below: More offerings under a tree. These must have been left by the Gujarati working-class community near my apartment, because the camel-riding devi, Dashaamaa, is not traditionally worshipped by the trading and Brahman castes as far as I know. The plastic bag is full of a mung bean-like legume called matki.

Below: This is what Diwali is really about in Mumbai - sales on electronics ;) Two men transport a flat-screen LCD TV on a motorcycle near Kamla Mills. I actually saw two other men on another motorcycle a few kilometres further south, doing the same thing. I'm still trying to figure out why someone who spent at least Rs 30,000 on the TV wouldn't pay another Rs 150 for a cab, which would be safer and more comfortable for the men and for the TV.

Thank you, Mercedes Sosa

Mercedes Sosa was born in July 1935, just a few days before my own mother, on the other side of the world. I can't recall when I first heard her, although I'm fairly sure it was in the US, well after Sosa was already famous and past her sixtieth birthday. Like my own mother's voice, her voice became a strong, reassuring, inspiring familiar presence in my life without my even noticing it.

Sosa was among the leading voices of the Nueva Canción movement of 1960s Latin America, which combined folk music with progressive/political lyrics, sort of like the American protest song.

Sosa supported Juan Perón's pro-labor politics. As Argentina grew more repressive, she found herself being searched an arrested on stage at a performance in 1979. She moved to Europe as she was banned in her own country. She moved back around the time of the Falklands War (1982).

Sosa has collaborated with many great musicians, including Joan Baez, Milton Nascimento, Nana Mouskouri, Luciano Pavarotti, Caetano Veloso, Shakira, and Sting.

She was suffering from renal ailments, and died earlier today. RIP.

Happy Indian independence day

Some pictures I took around Mumbai in the week before Independence Day. Barring the flag in first picture, I was looking for saffron-white-green that was not intended as patriotic.

Below, a girl sells flags for Rs. 2 (US$ 0.04) at the Capitol Cinema traffic light.

Below: Billboard, tree, pedestrians and bus stop near Mahalakshmi train station

Below: Store front on Haines Road / Baburao Jagtap Marg, Agripada

Below: Freshly washed or dyed clothes dry above a tin roof off Jacob Circle, Mahalakshmi

Below: Municipal garbage truck

Below: Grimy decoration on the back of a cab

Below: Ganesh, nestled among fresh marigolds and spider lilies, protects this cabbie from potholes and the swine flu.

Mumbai's summer fruit - much more than mangoes

Last month, the mango season ended here in Mumbai. At that time, during a conversation about mangoes, the person I was chatting with grumbled, "You can't get good fruit in this country". These are the tropics, she has lived here all her life (she's no spring chicken) and she has plenty of money to buy any fruit she wants. But apparently third-world fruit does not count as fruit. I'm amazed, always, at the innumerable ways - many divorced from all reality - which we Indians can find to disparage ourselves.

I said in surprise that I ate not only mangoes but also canteloupe, chikoo, and other fruits for breakfast every morning. This rich and powerful woman, who wears lots of gold, diamonds and Louis Vuitton every day, then blamed her fruitwallah for not bringing biodiversity to her doorstep. He only brings mangoes, she complained. Well, why would any smart businessman sell her Rs. 30/kilo fruit when she unquestioningly and regularly buys fruit that costs Rs. 200/kilo and lacks the information to ask for other fruit in Mumbai's peak fruit season! Going to the market is one way to benefit from a market economy, but I guess the market street is a little rough on Rs. 8,000 designer shoes...

I love going to the market, which unfortunately I get to do only once a week. All through the summer, I photographed the fruit I was about to eat for breakfast. Here are those and a couple of other results. Enjoy!

Above: Curbside fruit seller at the corner of Tulsi Pipe and Mori roads, Mahim.

Below: Jackfruit seller in the Santa Cruz market. Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus or Artocarpus heterophylla), the world's largest tree-borne fruit, is native to South Asia. When I asked for permission to take the picture, I apologetically told the vendor I would not buy any jackfruit because I don't like it. Truth is, I'd never tasted it (except for jackfruit chips - yum!) because the smell puts me off. But he cheerfully offered me a free sample. It was sweet, and I was surprised to find it was somewhat dry (i.e. not juicy) and chewy. I could get to like it, I guess!

Above: Baby jackfruit on the tree. This picture was not taken in Mumbai like the rest of the photos here. It was in Norris Town, Bangalore, in Feb 2007, using a film camera.

Below:Mangoes (Mangifera indica) are native to the Indian subcontinent. They contain several nutrients and phytochemicals and are very good for health. For some reason they have the (false) reputation for being fattening. A mango has about 105-135 calories, of which none are from fat. It's a virtually fat-free, cholesterol-free fruit. The fruit pictured below is the prized Alfonso variety, named after the fifeenth-century Portuguese fidalgo Alfonso de Albuquerque.

Below: Peeled and uncut Alfonso mango

Below: Mango peel

Below: Mango tart at Theobroma, Colaba - slices of mango resting on almond-flavored pastry cream in a small pastry shell. It tastes as magically wonderful as it looks.

In an effort to learn more about my own carbon footprint, I've taken these days to asking vendors where the fruit I'm buying comes from. Cherries and peaches, for example, come to Mumbai from Kashmir. More on other fruits below.

Below: Canteloupes (Cucumis melo) are native to South Asia. The one below came to Mumbai's Santa Cruz market from Muzaffarpur, Uttar Pradesh.

Below: With a little bit of homemade yogurt, it made three healthy and yummy breakfasts!

Below: Another variety of canteloupe

Below: A third variety. They're all equally delicious!

Below: One half de-seeded. At the risk of sounding cheesy, I'll say that cutting open a kharbooza (canteloupe) or sitaafal (custard apple) is a reminder of the abundance of nature: sweetness, nutrients, juice, and seeds, all crammed into one package. I would never buy cut fruit in a plastic cup in an American supermarket, and certainly never unnatural seedless fruit - I enjoy taking the time to cut and peel fruit. Nothing in life can be so important that you have to eat in a tearing hurry on a regular basis.

Below: Black jambul (a.k.a. jambu, jamun, Syzygium cumini, Syzygium jambolanum, Eugenia cumini and Eugenia jambolana) is native to the Indian subcontinent. It was introduced into the Americas by the Portuguese (Brazil, of course). They're about 1.5" long, but packed with enough dye to make your tongue purple for a few hours. The ones pictured below came to Mumbai from southern Gujarat. I asked the young woman who sold them to me what she would sell after the jambul season, and she said wouldn't sell anything, she'd go back to the fields.

Below: Jambul seeds are a pretty green inside, and useful in controlling diabetes.

Below: These lychees (Litchi chinensis) came to the Santa Cruz market in Mumbai from Bengal. Native to China, they grow in much of S. and SE Asia, and are rich in Vitamin C.

Below: Chikoo (also known as sapota, sapodilla, nispero, Latin name Manilkara zapota). Native to southern Mexico, introduced in SE Asia during colonization. It is very cheaply available in India. The fruit pictured below is local, i.e. from within Maharashtra state or from southern Gujarat. It's sweetest when it's soft enough to take apart with your hands - no need for a knife. If it smells a bit sour, that means it's overripe. Humble though it may be, the chikoo's sweet flavor and malty texture makes it ideal for milkshakes and ice-cream.

Below: The custard apple or sitaafal (Annona reticulata) is another exotic fruit (from the Americas, I think) that it's hard not to think of as Indian. It's about the size of an apple.If you let yourself be put off by its unfortunate toad-like appearance, you're denying yourself a wonderful treat! The meat is very sweet and creamy, with a slightly sandy texture. It's a very popular ice cream flavor in Mumbai when the fruit is in season.

Below: No need for a knife - you can gently take the fruit apart with your hands when it's ripe. The seeds are not edible, though (generations of grandmothers crushed and boiled them in coconut oil to make an effective herbal lousicide!). This fruit yielded 60 seeds. Yes, I counted.

Below: This peach came to Mumbai from Kashmir. European scientists called the peach Prunus persica because they thought it was native to Iran. But it's originally from China (not Georgia!). An average sized peach contains 30-35 calories, Vitamins A, C and E, fiber, and phytochemicals. In other words, it's healthy! Here's a nice American webpage that explains the history of peaches and links to peach recipes.

Below: Papaya (Carica papaya) is native to Central America, and unrelated to the North American pawpaw. I guess the season really starts in the early monsoon. Papaya is very common in South and SE Asia, South Africa. It can be eaten ripe (yellow) or unripe (green, in salad or curry). It is fat-free and very high in Vitamin C. Did you know that green papaya has contraceptive properties? The papaya tree below is in rural Karjat. I took the picture on a film camera in 2004.

There are still many fruits not pictured here, including the incredible palmyra fruit, known as taar gola in Marathi and Gujarati (I ate my purchase before I started this project, and never bought it again, and the season passed), plum, red date, ber (Ziziphus jujuba), red cherry, plum, pomegranate, pineapple, watermelon, etc., etc., etc.

I must acknowledge Indira of Mahanandi, whose approach to food I share in many respects, and whose delightful photography is partly what inspired me to put together this photo essay, even though my skill, patience and talent does not match hers.

Itadakimasu.

Monsoon night in Mumbai

Wadala road bridge, 1:30 am: The light from a street lamp falls on a few tents on the curb, in which families are sleeping. The tents are covered in blue or white plastic sheets in case it rains. Outside one of the tents, a small white cat sits quietly, its back to the cars on the road.