This Christmas was special.I had an opportunity to be on the celebrated Orchard Road in Singapore for Christmas and boy!!! what a fiesta the road showcases !!! With scores of people all around , the dance, the music going on non-stop...the lightings on the ever lit Orchard Road, glittering as gold, youngsters hulla-balooing at the top of their voices spraying foams and spaghettis !!! It was a full blown carnival.
Alighting on the Borders (a global book and music retail store - probably one of the largest in this region) with a couple of my friends, I had decided to join in the other folks who had already reached Takashimaya mall in Ngee Ann City. They called me up and I told them...'bas ek minute yaar, am almost there' not realizing that that ek minute 'll be close to 45 minutes !!! The crowd, though maddening, had a certain charm about itself. Here I was walking amongst the people, suddenly it dawned unto me -
the realisation of being in a foreign land, with all unknown faces, listening to people speak in an unknown language, in an all new ambience...the stuff which mostly TV shows are made of... I was right there! Feeling more as one, than I ever did ( I don't know what that means, but that's what I felt!!)A hard knock on my shoulder brought me back to the Orchard Road.
Suddenly the crowd went berserk and there was a huge roar. I could hear the countdown ...10...9...8...7...6...5..4....3....2....1.......MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!! (For a sec, I was thought it was 31st Dec, that's what we generally do...right? countdown for the new year?) The clock had struck 12 and it was 25th December 2006. Christmas !! And then started the real thing. The entire crowd started converging in 'huge pockets' and dancing, spraying foam on each other (reminded me of the Holi, sans colours) Sans colours? Only in my imagination, as soon enough I was sprayed with multicoloured foam and spaghettis !!! :) It was the first time I celebrated Christmas like this...among my new 'friends', I call them foam-friends!! There I bumped into a couple of my friends, and then we went on a photo-clicking frenzy.
Though there was huge traffic on the Orchard Road, the police were managing it beautifully ensuring smooth movement.
Amidst all the carnival, foam, spaghetti sprays, songs, dance and laughter, I finally met the Takashimaya gang and all of us headed further into the crowd. Though it was almost 1.30, the
crowd had still not lost the tempo and the celebrations were still rocking the place. The pavements almost wet with foam sprays and beer (yeah, beer - it was flowing all around), the place was completely transformed. The 'fine' city suddenly had a different veil, and we were all held in awe!! (thx to so much litter all around).I thought, exceptions have to be there, even in Singapore, and why not when its Christmas time!!! All hungry, by this time, we ventured for food into the Lucky Plaza and also had close up Santa-photo sessions prior to fooding! Sample attached:
By 2-ish, we too were almost on our way back, and what we saw was really commendable. Even when the celebrations were fully on, the cleaners had started picking up the litter lying outside the shops, mostly empty foam and beer cans, systematically packing them into trash bags and towing them away to make more rounds. Though they could have easily refused, saying 'ek minute yaar, bas I 'll join you to clean up after 2 beers; or after spending some more time with friends'. But they didn't shrug off their responsibility, even for an evening. I couldn't help but admire the spirit of these people, who know how to take care of their sweet little city-country! Hats off to the cleaners!!!
I guess some takeaways are always there, in any new 'world' you go to.
Merry Christmas to all of you! May Lord's sweet blessings always shower upon you...Amen!
