You must be kidding!? There is yet another religious celebration to be fetted at full volume!
This time it happens to be Ganapathi and the clanking of bells, thrum of drums hasn’t relented for hours. And soon it will be joined by the Bandra Fair celebrations (aka Mount Mary feast) with folks walking down our lane with kazoos at 2am. Seriously… Plus Eid with all the goats that have been trotted around for their walks now trotting to a different destination…
During a different festival, there was a hilarious moment on a Skype call to get the background on a project. My buddy could hear the ever increasing decibel level. And this after all the windows, doors were firmly shut, curtains drawn and extra ‘sound proofing’ added! I was even using my noise cancellation headset so I could hear clearly…
My partner has railed against religions blasting music at ear bleeding levels. More than once he has burst out in exasperation with “Does louder equal a bigger d#@k?”
Let me hasten to add it is not one particular religion – it is a universal phenomenon here. Noise by-laws are quite ineffective as, at best, the 10 pm cut-off is adhered to except, naturally, on certain religious holidays where this can be ignored completely with full permission of the powers that be!?
One of the joys and delights of India is its heterogeneity! The way many faiths and cultural traditions co-exist.
Yet it is remarkable how peaceful bhajans and melodious calls to prayer have somehow been transmogrified into trance?! Accompanied by innumerable firecrackers!?
Yet that my friend is how we ‘do it’ festival-wise here in urban India.
So crank up the volume and get down… cos its festival time and we are about the paaaartay here!
Diwali lights at our building
PS Don’t get me started on the pollution aspect either… but do check out what these folks have to say about “God, Faith & Bullshit”
Related post:
Everyday Asia 
Yep, I’m with you on this one! I love a good party with loud music and dancing and street parties are the best, but for A WHOLE MONTH AT THIS VOLUME!!!! It is relentless! Poor Ganesh with his big ears must have an even bigger headache than me. Three days is more than enough!
Hahaha!!! Welcome back to India Cotton!! 🙂
And the detritus that remains after vasarjan?? Don’t get me started!!! Or the having to brave traffic snarls…. Or…. Or….
But we still love it, madness n all! 🙂
India must be Spain’s noisical twin…
Hehe!!! That’s actually rather believable! 😉
Good luck with the noise Carissa. I remember the loudspeakers blasting at full volume when we lived in Tiruvannamalai – so loud the sound was completely distorted.
That article you linked was sobering.
Alison
The toxic idols and that image of all the dead fish after immersion is indeed sobering. And nothing is being done to change… if anything it is getting bigger and bigger each year…