Yesterday evening I heard music blaring outside my home. Nothing unusual about that, except this was traditional Hindu music, which I doubt the youth of today plays whilst cruising down the street.
I went outside to have a look and saw this coming from around the corner:
I was told it was a Hindu holy day – that of Ganesh Chaturthi – and this year the procession (which apparently occurs every year) was taking place via my street. How random!
I live in a quiet, residential road, and the last thing you’d expect to see is a herd of Hindus marching up the road in front of a giant statue of Ganesh.
Of course I used the opportunity to take some pictures 
A few rituals took place in front of the statue, including breaking open a coconut.
The food below is known as Prasad, which is eaten after first being offered to a deity. It’s believed to have the deity’s blessing within it.
The police obviously weren’t too keen on the music.
More coconut rituals
Someone from the group gave a piece to the onlookers below who were rather bemused by the whole thing. I heard the woman say ‘erm thanks, but what do I do with it?’.
The procession turned onto the high street, much to the annoyance of the honking cars who had to wait for it to pass.
One could easily be mistaken for thinking some of the pictures were taken in India. I almost felt like I was in India!
This woman amused me with her old school camera. It’s odd how only a few years ago most people had film cameras like that.
Finally, the procession turned into the temple. The gates were opened a few moments later to let everyone in.
It was very cool having a lively procession unexpectedly pass through my street. It highlights just how diverse London is, with all kinds of cultural and religious festivals taking place publicly on a fairly regular basis.
They should definitely do this more often!
The final Indian chapter – a mish mash of pictures. All of my India shots were taken with a 18-55mm lens by the way.
Ashamed to say it, but we went to McDonald’s. What can I say.. I like their icecream! Also, people who say it’s not very cultural to go to McD’s are mistaken – just look at this menu.
I had a butterscotch icecream – we don’t even get that in the UK McD’s!
They don’t deliver in the UK either. Indians are lazier than I thought. This would probably be a hit in the states :P
Safety is a priority for Indian drivers
Really, it’s quite scary to see how they behave on the roads – there really is no concept of safety at all. There’d be families of four or five on one motorbike.
I love walking around at night – now I just need to learn how to take good night shots. Rule 1 – don’t try to use manual focus if you can’t see anything!
That shot could have come out so well if I hadn’t tried to focus manually. These kids were so happy to see us – they started dancing and singing (a dance festival was going on at the same time) and then they all ran in front of a statue of a god and posed for us. It was so lovely to see this kind of joy coming from street children. Oh, and you can’t see it but it was raining..
You can see it here though
A street shoe-repairer
When he saw me he just stood like this staring back at me. I always wonder if any of these ordinary street workers have ever had their picture taken before. I almost wish I could give a copy to every person I took a picture of.
An Indian security guard clearly doing his job!
He sits outside the appartment block that a friend lives in – she said he’s like that every night. I thought the click of my camera would wake him up, but nope.
There are quite a few churches in Mumbai
I had a conversation with someone who said more and more Indians are turning towards Christianity.
We walked past a group of people praying.
You can’t see it but there was a long queue of people waiting for their turn, being drenched in the rain.
I have no idea what these guys were cooking but it was delicious
It was like a pancake but even better.
This little girl was sitting in the street completely emotionless..she wouldn’t even look at us when we tried talking to her – she just sat crying. This struck me as odd; street kids in India always give attention to foreigners, but she wouldn’t budge.
Even when we gave her some sweets and money, she didn’t look at us once.
Took some pictures in a train station
That was until we were stopped by guards asking what media organisation I was from. DSLRs aren’t great for subtlety. They told us we couldn’t take pictures here – this was understandable. This particular station was Mahim Junction, one of the stations blown up by terrorists a few months ago.
As we left, one of the guards came running after us and asked if I could take a picture of him.
I’d love to go back and find him to give him this picture.
A cute little green rickshaw
I forgot to put this shot into my Haji Ali blog
I’ve never seen Muslims in purple before :o
No-male zone:
That’s the lot! I have heaps more (I took over 600 pictures) but many were personal pictures as well as experimental shots.
I want to post one last picture though..
This was hanging on my friend’s wall and I love it and what it stands for. I’ll let you figure out its symbolism.
Thanks for reading :)
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