The noise was ear splitting - in the darkness the truck slowly progressed down Jetalpur Road with its loudspeakers blasting out disco music. The huge statue of Ganesha sat enthroned in the back of the truck, lit up with brilliant spotlights which also illuminated the road behind, where hundreds of revelers were dancing and gyrating to the music. Every now and then the truck would stop to allow more revelers to join the crowd from the side lines. They were heading to the river, where the statue of Ganesha would be immersed in water and left to dissolve, bringing this festival to an end....but, this being India, it is just a preparation for another... Ganesha statues from every street and neighbourhood in Vadodara have been progressing, in decorated trucks, down roads all afternoon, bringing traffic to a halt, as well wishers, who have tended him with prayers over the last 10 days, accompany him to his immersion.
The Monsoon is over now and we won't see rain again for another year. And in this strange sequence of seasons, the coolness brought by the rain, has been followed by hot humid weather which will be followed by the cooler 'winter' months....in a rhythm of hot, cooler, hot, cooler.....it doesn't follow the logical patterns of seasons as we know them in the West, with the gradual change of summer into autumn and winter, blending into spring...The hot nights are accompanied by the sound of crickets and the odd explosion of fireworks....
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