Diwali Mela 2008

It has been two months since Radio Salaam Namaste started advertising about Diwali Mela 2008 (Yes, we do have not one, but two Indian or should I say desi radio channels, here in Dallas... and yes.. we have a Mela too. Pretty neat, huh?) Come Saturday morning, me and my husband were contemplating whether to go for it or not and finally decided to give it a try. We reached there about 7PM. I should definitely mention the venue at this point - It was the Texas Cowboys Stadium(American Football). I am sure it can hold more than 60,000 people. So, we were kind of curious to find out how extensively the area was going to be used.

As we were driving towards the stadium, I was enquiring about the directions and my husband said, "Just look out for Toyota Camri or Honda Accord, follow them and we'll be there!!" The parking lot was just starting to fill up and we pulled up. We could hear some blaring music and headed towards that direction. As we walked in, there were flyers being handed out and also raffle tickets - first prize being a car. I excitedly got two and we continued to go in.

It is at such places that our eyes go wandering trying to spot a familiar face - easier said than done when there are thousands of people around you. I was quite overwhelmed by the crowd. People from every part of India, wearing all possible outfits one can imagine - from sarees to mini skirts and what not!!!

From where we stood we could see plenty of stalls spread over along both sides. The first stall in there surprised me completely. It was that of our big temple here. There were idols of Lord Ganapathy and Goddess Lakshmi. Wah! Even Gods get to advertise now or should I say 'need to be advertised'? Maybe that was a wrong way of putting it - The stall was there for us to seek blessings first and then carry on with the mela, 'Oh God! Keep me in good health after eating all this food!!!'

We started investigating each and every stall and I must say the crowd was quite manageable. As long as I don't bump into people on every step, I always enjoy it. Proceeding further, it felt like the number around us was increasing and at the same time I also felt the aroma of delicious food tickle my nostrils. We were still outside of the stadium - inside there were some cultural programmes going on including a dance drama depicting 'Ram Leela'. I was initially feeling guilty about avoiding that and just happily whiling away in the food stalls. But as I saw the people around me, I realized I wasn't alone. :D

Almost every Indian/Pakistani restaurant in Dallas had put up a booth amounting up to 60-70 numbers in total - quite a variety. We sampled some of the interesting, new dishes we had not tried before. The sign 'Bombay ka Chana Batura' stared at us invitingly but the queue in front of it seemed a bit hostile. Not disheartened, my husband bravely made his way to the end of the queue and I followed suit. There were around four parallel lines and out of nowhere two ladies came behind us. One of them just kept giggling and laughing out aloud; in the meantime she was squeezing her way ahead of the line. (She reminded me of the evil sister-in-law character in movies/mega serials.) She was acting as if she was doing it unnoticed, and that made it worse!!! It is incidents like these that spoil the fun of the occasion. Well, lets put that aside for the moment. So there we were, waiting (im)patiently in the long line, looking suspiciously at anyone trying to even come near the line. The ones in the front of the queue made their way back with their hands loaded with goodies. The look on their face is really something. To quote Jerry Seinfeld, "They act like they have been chosen". At the same time, it is a sight to watch the people in the line eyeing the 'slurpy' dishes - you could ride a boat in their mouth and then they suddenly become aware of the same and hurriedly gulp it down!!!

Finally we too were 'chosen' and we came out of that chaos to relish the Batura. Satisfied with our achievement, we decided to take a break off the eating and moved to explore more of the stalls and stumbled upon a board that read 'Sahaja Yoga'. There was a picture of a human body, pointing out its seven energy points. The words self realization, relaxation, yoga was enough for us to go and find out what it was. What drew us there actually was there were people seated in chairs and others standing behind them performing odd motions with his hands around the seated guy. Interesting, we thought! Curiosity is something very difficult to fight. End result - We both sat gingerly in adjacent chairs waiting for some miracle to happen. (Again, the words 'just 5 mins', 'free of charge', 'revitalise' clouted us!) End of 5 mins and I was just the same. The lady asked me whether I felt cold breeze in my hand (It's quite embarrassing to say 'No') It seems the cold breeze indicated a surge of the energy awakened from within.

I am aware that a mere five minutes on this, does not give me any rights to judge the procedure or anything related to it. Maybe it is good, maybe it is truly helpful. But, the circumstances were such. There was loud, blaring songs played from two different directions and people talking all around us - how can I relax; there was wind blowing constantly - how can I attribute that to energy being released! Well, maybe in a different surrounding, I might have felt differently - who knows! :)

That was pretty much it in the mela. It was a very 'Indian' mela in every way.(i.e if you replace the tissue papers in the food stalls with a big can of water and a broken cup to wash your hands!!!) All said and done, it was an amazing evening, had a great time and no fair in the world can beat the Indian one nor can it give us such scope for fun.