That time of the year..
It starts with your mom banning you from eating eggs and non-vegetarian food for the upcoming week or so. You protest loudly - how will not eating meat for 9 days make any difference to any God? and what about your protein requirements?? - but your mom is rigid and you finally just roll your eyes and give up. If there's one thing you've learnt in your thirty years on this planet, it's to know how to pick your battles.
Having lost your right to choose what you put in your mouth (ha ha!), you despondently switch on the television, hoping there's something on besides Friends. There is! Two young sardar boys are yammering on about what they did last year. Turns out, they don't remember a thing. Tch tch, early onset of Alzheimer's, you mutter sympathetically. All of a sudden, Coca Cola appears on screen and tells you that by having Coke this festive season, you'll remember every minute detail of your activities in the future. You frown to try and figure out a connection between memory loss and Coke. By now, the ad break is over and sigh, Friends has come on. That reminds you, stop frowning! You don't want permanent lines on your forehead just yet.
As you exercise your right thumb on the channel change button, you stop at a news channel showing a guy dressed in gaudy satin robes, a gold paper crown and a fake moustache. He looks like he could be part of some street play, you think. Wait a second, he is! This gentleman with the lopsided moustache and gold crown with matching earrings is playing the role Ram in a local Ram Leela. Cool!
Soon you lose interest in the woefully unimpressive Ram and consider going to the market to get something to read. It's still too warm during the days. But the evenings, you find, are becoming almost bearable. Could summer really be getting to ready to beat a retreat? Do you dare hope?
The market is buzzing a little more than usual. You find a huge crowd at the corner halwai's who's doing brisk business selling special Navratra thalis. A beauty salon close by flashes special festive packages. A little further, a hoarding featuring colourfully packed boxes of biscuits and chocolates invites you to celebrate the season with them. You overhear a teenage girl complain to her friend about her parents who're dragging her for a family vacation during the Dussehra break.
Yup, it is that time of the year. It's in the markets, in the streets, in the air and even on TV. The weather is changing and you feel a little thrill at the exciting promises of the upcoming season - festivals, weddings, big movie releases, card parties, sweets, winter clothes and then the New Year. It may have been a rough year, but change is right around the corner. You can feel it in the air.
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