Here I will post month to month on the highlights of a year in Bangalore.
August – The big international schools start back in mid August so most expat families have returned to Bangalore from their summer trips home. The weather is very nice. We are still in the monsoon. That means we have a HEAVY downpour almost every night. People are sick with all sorts of “viral” ailments – colds, flus, etc.
September – The rains have stopped for the most part. The festival season has started. For us, the first big festival of the year is the Ganesh puja. For those of you who don’t know, Ganesh is the elephant-headed god that you see all over India. He is believed to be the remover of obstacles so many people will pray to him before they start on an important task (a trip, writing an exam, building a house, doing a puja.) The Ganesh celebration is a lot of fun. The markets will be full of Ganesh idols made out of clay or plaster. You can buy them painted in very bright colors or left in their natural state. Because the idols end up being immersed in a local lake at the end of the festival there is a lot of awareness about selecting an idol made out of natural products (clay with no paint.) Little A came to the market and selected a nice idol. We did cave and have a little gold paint and silver sparkles added on to the Ganesh! Ganesh is a lover of sweets so on the day of the puja families will prepare a number of sweet dishes to offer during the puja and then to consume after! Individual neighborhoods will put very large Ganesh idols under a tent or on a stage in the locality. There will be lots of music, color and fun. After a few days (5, 7, 10 – depends on the family) the idol will be taken from the home and immersed in a lake or other water body. Bangalore has taken to setting up mobile water tanks in order to keep the lakes clean and to streamline the process. This has also been the month of Ramadan so your Muslim friends and neighbors may be fasting all day and having a meal only in the evening. If you can get some you must try Haleem – one of the favorite foods used to break the fast.
OCTOBER – This will be a month of festivals! We have Gandhi’s birthday on October 2 which is a national holiday. We then have the Dassara holiday which is a 9 day festival (for most parts of India). Both my kids have one week off from school for that holiday. We are then back to school for two weeks before it is Diwali and another one week holiday. This year Diwali and Halloween fall in the same week so we will be combining festivities in our neighborhood this year! The weather is getting warm. We have not had any rain in quite a few days.
