The Dancing Dolls of Silvassa

It was a long weekend. We had been wanting to visit Silvassa for some time and this seemed like a good opportunity to do so. Driving down means that somewhere down the Bombay - Ahmedabad highway one has to turn off onto a much narrower 17 Km long tree lined road. The drive is lovely and as long as you have all the time in the world on your hands, you will enjoy it.

After a lazy lunch in the hotel, we decided to explore the town. Our first stop was the Tourism Department Office. This unfortunately was closed. But what was open, and just a couple of doors away was an nice small museum. It had an amazing collection of masks. From a 10 headed Ravan mask to a tall Raktai one, they were all so very colourful and vibrant. The museum took us through a short journey on the various tribes of the region and how they differed from each other.

Having been suitably educated we decided to walk around the town. Silvassa has a nice lazy, feel to it. There was an exhibition in town - the type that is put up under a large tent where you have people selling things as varied as cloth by the yard, ready made clothes, shoes, magic cures and the ever present kitchen appliance person who specialises in chopping up various types of vegetables into various shapes! Most of the stalls had people asleep or almost asleep. It was after all the afternoon and normal people sleep in the afternoon!

Out of the tent, in the hot afternoon sun, the games guy was setting up his empire. There was the toy train that went round and round a circular track with lights flashing and the sound of a horrible reverse horn. There was a huge lump of plastic which he was carefully unfolding into what looked like a giant parachute. Later that evening, when we walked past this place, we realised that it was one of those huge inflatable slide into which kids climb up and come bumping down.

And just then, in comes a guy, pushing a hand-cart laden with bottles. Bottles that had the most amazing colours of liquids in them. From a clear beer colour to a shocking pink to a ferocious red and even a tangy green. Oh, the options were so huge, so varied that it would put a Photoshop colour palette to shame. Each bottle was capped and on top of that was a plastic glass. The uneven ground on which the cart was travelling, made the plastic glasses dance like the kuchipuddi dancing dolls while the bottles clanking together, created the orchestra for the dolls. And then it all stopped. Each of the dancers frozen in the middle of a mudra. Where am I, what am I doing here, where have the dancers gone to? Questions...questions and more questions.

And then I heard a little boy asking for a gola.

The Heat is On

It's March. The thermometer in the house read a stunning 36 degrees this afternoon. 36 degrees, in March, in Bombay. WOW! That's hot. The IMD claims that the summer in Bombay is from the 1st of March onwards, but hey, I'm sure last March had the temperatures below 30.

However, there seemed to be quite a few people who were making hay while the sun shines. With the heat, came the hot dry Easterly winds. And on a trip to the market this morning, I saw this vendor selling these colourful paper fans. The fans were spinning around with the warm breeze creating a pleasant cacophony of colours. Every child that went past stared longingly at the fans. And the child in every adult that went past wanted to reach out and touch the fans ... but there were too many people watching to behave like a child. The guy in the blue shirt, his face hidden behind the riot of colours that were the twirling fans, was a happy man. The warm breeze would help sell his wares. An hour later when we went past, there were just 6 fans left. Mr. Blue Shirt was drenched in sweat but was smiling in glee. A day well spent.

A little down the road was a man selling matkas those earthen pots that are the poor man's water cooler. But come to think of it, why just the poor man's water cooler? Why don't we all use a matka?

In today's energy hungry and time pressed world, we all head for the refrigerator for that sip of cold water. And the refrigerators come in various shapes, sizes and types. There are single door and multiple door. Frost free or direct cool. 90 ltrs or 1,000 ltrs. The choice is huge, the range is bigger but they all do the same thing. They hog energy. And contribute to a planet that is less green and more filled with green house gasses.

So why don't we look at a green solution for cold water - the matka solution. A solution that gives you water that is not too cold - just a couple of degrees cooler that the atmosphere around and so just right for your body. A solution that uses the heat and dryness in the atmosphere around to cool the water and does not use electricity, electricity that has come from burning coal or oil or some other green house gas producer. Let's take this step to leave a greener world for our children.