The Bandra police & Navratri

Next door is the police colony, a collection of apartment buildings for the families of the men (and women?) whose beat is Bandra West, our leafy section of north Mumbai.  Last night their couryard pulsed with pounding drums, electric piano, flashing lights, and exuberant dancers of all ages, some of whom clacked sticks together, while others circled in celebration of Navratri, a holiday dedicated to the Mother Goddess who seems to go by many names, including Durga.  Durga has a nine arms and wields all manner of weaponry--she's pretty fierce looking.





All around town people have set up small altars and makeshift temples in her honor where they hang strings of orange and yellow marigolds, burn incense and make offerings of food on woven squares of bright silk with gold threads.  All this to celebrate the nine days of Navratri






...unless of course, you ask the guard who sits out front of Roopa's building all day;  he told us the whole shebang was for Ghandi's birthday, which was also yesterday...hmmm.  If we'd been more clever, we'd have video taped the scene to capture the wild music and dancing. A great time clearly had by all!

And today on our walk, we spotted this public service announcement posted by the same police force--no rest for this crew!