Mall versus Mela

Mall versus Mela

Visiting crowded melas, with dirty atmosphere and kids crying all around to acquire dancing horses with fluorescent lights, flutes & pawan chakki, and coaxing parents to eat gobhi pakoras and gol gappas selling at seemingly unhygienic stalls, appears to be either a very old story for those who at some point in time had experienced all these or an imaginative story crammed by school children to write an essay on ‘Dusherra mela’. For the children in the latter category, visiting mela or a mall appears to be the same thing – you go to a mall to eat food, do shopping and watch movies/shows, exactly what one does when she visits a mela (visiting mela is a hypothetical case). So what is the big excitement about the Dusherra mela?

That’s a question that is close to the heart of all those people living in tier II towns (or towns with high number of tiers) or in rural areas. Every year, thousands of people eagerly wait for those 9-10 days when at the biggest ground in their town or village, several shops and stalls would suddenly appear completely transforming the place. The same place which earlier was used by shepherds or villagers for feeding their animals on the long grass grown since the last mela or where budding cricketers displayed their skills had left wickets in the form of holes in ground & numerous piles of stone and sticks, abruptly gets covered by red jute carpet, tents and loud speakers to entertain people for the coming ten days. Some mela visitors ask themselves the question that was that the same place where they used to learn vehicle driving or jogged (walked) daily morning when the ground appeared infinitely big.

Talking about melas, Dusherra mela carries a special significance as it is that period of year when many towns, cities and villages simultaneously organize melas with Ravan and his two companions occupying special location in the ground. People proudly mention the fact that the Ravan structure is so big that it is clearly visible for the roof of their house. Added advantage occasionally stated is that during the Dusherra day, they don’t need to visit the mela venue to enjoy the Ravan-dahan, hence they can avoid the rush. Timings of lunch and dinner are fixed in such a way so that every member of household gets enough time to visit mela. List of shops selling handicrafts from far flung areas of the country (especially hilly areas as winters are approaching) are prepared in advance to avoid last minute hassles. Such is the excitement for those ten days that anything and everything circle around the mela and Ravan. Brothers and sisters argue and compete with each other to secure maximum points in the balloon striking game and the one getting maximum hits gets ice cream cone from the small stall standing near the mela entrance. The sounds from different types of toys bought from the mela form the majority of sounds in the house, even beating the whistling of pressure cooker for such period of time till they get broken either due to excess usage or due to mutual fight between the siblings. Sometimes these toys get way to the school to decide who has got best piece from the mela. After the mela is over, everything turns normal, even the venue is again back to exploitation by driving schools or cricket teams.

For tier 0 and I cities, Dusherra comes either as a day forming part of ‘extended weekend’ or for the concerned ones, it is celebrated as a special occasion calling for a grand dinner at the best fine dining restaurant in the nearby mall. Mall, centrally air conditioned, systematic parking facility, hygienic food along with the option of watching a movie at the multiplex on the top floor, provides a fully relaxed entertainment package to the whole family. Everyone seems happy as the working people in the family have finally got a hard earned holiday and in case, Dusherra falls on a weekend, that happiness also goes away. Since the coming half yearly examinations of Hindi/English have a high chance of carrying an essay on Dusherra, children enthusiastically question elders about this hypothetical festival which is limited to their books and TV (in case they switch it to news channels, but yes these days the saas-bahu soaps also carry special episode on each festival to spread awareness about the festival). Elders generally start their elaborate answers asking questions of the form “do you know, don’t you know”, due to which it becomes easy for the children to lose interest and focus on the butter scotch-dark chocolate fudge on their plate. Needless to mention, the day when children get back to schools after the Dusherra holiday, the hottest topic of discussion is the latest movie (Student of the Year) they have seen at respective closest malls, hence ensuring maximum utilization of the break.

This cycle continues till the next Dusherra festival.