Saturday, October 19, 2013

Festivals and Bananas

The past few weeks have been a very festive time for Mysore.  People from all over the country come to see Mysore’s elaborate processions and lights in celebration of Dasara, one of the biggest holidays in India.  The city swelled with people and traffic, all of which culminated in a grand procession of floats, performers, and elephants that have been training for weeks.  Unfortunately, this procession is so famous, it was virtually impossible to get anywhere near it.  But that didn’t stop us from trying!  It was worth it just to see how creative people can be in looking for a good viewing spot.

Yeah, that looks safe
After about an hour of trying in vain to find a spot where we could see something other than people’s backs, we gave up and went to an air-conditioned coffee shop, where we could watch the parade on TV.  Luckily, fate delivered another (perhaps even more amazing) procession into our laps.  I was taking a dawn motorcycle ride with a friend to the top of Chamundi Hill to see the sun rise when we noticed what seemed to be an unusually high volume of people gathering.  So, we decided to stick around and see what happened.  Being literally the only westerners there, we were the object of much attention.

Part of our fan club

Fortunately, a family sitting nearby flanked us and warded off the onslaught of grinning teenage boys.

Our adopted "Auntie" 
While we were waiting for the unknown festivities to start, we noticed people walking through the crowds with baskets full of bananas that were adorned with sprigs of sage.  Everyone around us was buying bananas... for what reason?  We had no idea.  Suddenly, we heard an explosion, and saw smoke rising nearby.  Our ‘adopted family’ laughed at our surprise.  As it got closer, we saw the source.  Roughly every dozen feet, a team of men would pack a small cart full of some kind of explosive, and then a man with a long, smoking stick would light it on fire.


Safety: not a priority
This caused an explosion with flames reaching tens of feet into the air and bits of (hopefully harmless) “shrapnel” spraying the crowd.  I’ve never been that close to such a powerful explosion... you could feel it through your entire body.

We noticed everyone was preparing their bananas, the main event was arriving!  Several hundred people were using thick ropes to pull a cart with enormous wooden wheels, on top of which stood several live people and a deity.  People cheered and shouted "Mysore!" as it lumbered down the street.


Our new friends passed us bananas and excitedly instructed us to wait until the altar got closer and then throw them!  The goal was to get our bananas stuck in the top, for good luck.  I will never forget the sight of hundreds of bananas flying through the air and pelting the elegantly decorated shrine. 

It was bananas (ha!)
Exiting the festival was daunting, as thousands of people bottlenecked through alleys and around parked cars (not to mention our shoes and pants were coated with mushed bananas).  Some small children nearly got trampled when one fell in front of the dense and unforgiving crowd.  At one point I’m fairly certain I could have lifted my feet and continued to move purely through the pushing throng of people all around me.


Like most other experiences in India, it was strange, colorful, devotional, exciting, and full of men.