Diwali in Haji Ali

This Diwali was my first outside Surat, and in the run-up I had expected a fair share of fireworks. At Guwahati, during those two days you could not hear yourself think- think of a war zone, or the sound effects of any war scene. The staccato of crakers, the boom of "atom bombs", the flash and clap of "rocket bombs". At Surat, this revelry was upscaled, maybe because the city was full of fat cats who had money to burn. They have to do something with 40,000 crores of diamond export.

So it was a pleasant surprise when the skies over Navi Mumbai twinkled with stars, and you could hear the nasal strains of Himmeshbhai from a respectable distance. The police was talking tough, promising to impose hefty fine and a long stay in the cooler for any poor sod caught with a burning cracker after 10.30 pm.And for once, they actually worked at making good the threat. Most folks didn't want to ruin their holiday mood, and immersed themselves in quieter activities like watching SRK's latest offering, or gorged on sweets, or played cards. And there was peace and quiet all around.

Diwali went a bit curiously for me. We were three old friends sitting around, all new to Bombay. The IIT campus, where I often go to visit my pals ,do a bit of Orkut on the side, and watch movies off the campus LAN was quiet, far too quiet for us.So we three whipped out the Mumbai Navigator, a pretty useful online tool and decided to go to Haji Ali dargah. Don't ask why we chose to go there, it seemed the nearest by train.

Haji Ali's is situated on an island just off the South Bombay coast, reachable by a 600 m long concrete causeway. At low tide, there is practically no need of the causeway, and I imagine that before the structure was built pilgrims would go to the dargah by clambering over the rocks. At high tide, the water level would probably rise by half a meter (this is a very wild guess, so don't sue me if you have information that the rise is actually .43m). The pathway was crowded, as the day being Friday was the Muslim holy day. The causeway was choc a bloc full of people, with vendors shouting out their wares and beggars, most of them maimed chanting like those rowers of old when they were rowing the ship against a strong current.

My first impressions of the place- dismal. The sea was horribly polluted- black waters, floating plastics, rotting leaves and discarded food. The whole area stank horribly, though you tend to get used to it, fast. We looked around the area , climbed out to the rocky shore and went back, barely noticing the stink. Most of the holy places which are situated in india would probably be like this. But then again , I guess a temple without a crowd would be like a body without a soul.