Ponto de Vista

The Nine “divine” days of Navaratri just finished. (I had no idea it comes twice a year, btw. Yeesh.) and there were a lot of poojas and such all across the country.
In Bombay and Kolkata, idols of the goddess Durga were eventually, erm, drowned, immersed in the sea with great pomp (holding up traffic madly). On the 10th day (Vijay Dashmi), in Bombay, at least the cars all wear a smile of marigolds. I have no idea why. And some shops and homes are wreathed in garlands, too.
This photo was taken in Delhi. Bhola Singh was up to his elbows in pretty flowers when we left. What fun!

There is a loo blowing in Delhi now. No, I’m not saying there’s a toilet…blowing in the wind. This is the hot wind that blows across the Thar Desert. Temperatures are soaring. Right now, at 9:50pm, it is 43 degrees Celsius (105.8 Fahrenheit). Last week though, everytime the temperature pushed 41, it rained. And during one glorious shower, the flowers blooming in the garden were crying petals. It was so pretty. There was hibiscus, bougainvillea, lillies, and flowering shrubs leaning up into the falling drops.

I stopped by at Green Park market to buy gujjia — a dumpling stuffed with sweet coconut that’s traditionally consumed at Holi. But a) there was an hour’s wait for fresh ones and b) the dude behind the counter wasn’t wearing gloves when handling the rest of the sweets. So I opted for jalebis…
Greasy? Check. Deep fried? Check. But hot and definitely free of germs? Check.
One dude made dough squiggles and fried them, the other soaked them in chashni, cardamom & saffron flavored sugar syrup, and then packaged them. Yummy.