Saturday, September 30, 2006
Dagdi Chawl and the Flying Moduk
I remember how last year crossing the flyover at byculla I had called Megha to wish her for her birthday. How odd that this year, on Ganeshotsav, it was my birthday! Megha and me must share some cosmic connection. Once on the other side of the railways we inquired as to the route of the LCR. A man briefed us, it always passes by here at around four thirty - five. The road was largely empty and on one side people were gathering and sitting on the road. A little further down we reached dagdi chawl. Again it felt like we had reached some sort of important node in the procession. There was Arun Gawli's pushpa varsha with a man perched on some bamboos managing it. Opposite it was a truck with an idol and procession waiting. There were some huge JBL speakers on a truck behind it pounding music into the afternoon. On the other side of the road the dagdi chawl idol had just begun its onward march. There was a free water stand near a busstop and a large group of people had just recently spilled out onto the road and were busy arranging themselves into a procession.
A little further down the road the excitement died out and the road returned to it's regular activity. As we reached the end of it, the excitement picked up again. There was a free water distribution stand and some loudspeakers entertaining the neighbourhood. People around seemed to be having some important discussion when a taxi drove up with a big yellow moduk perched on top of it. I could not for the world of me imagine where that moduk was going to go and once there what it was going to do. The men around me seemed to be engaged in an important discussion about its precisely the same thing. One man climbed onto the bonnet of the taxi and opened up a little flap. He proceeded to mix up all sorts of pink flowers into a cane tokri and started, handful by handful, putting it through the flap. Once ready, some men had already taken one of the ropes and attached it to the building on one side of the road. Some other men had gone upto another person's house in the opposite building they were throwing the rope up to him. All these basic arrangements having been done, they began to hoist the moduk into the air slowly. Now watch closely because there are three important movements involved in the hoisting of the moduk, the first two involve shortening the rope that holds both ends, resulting in the lifting of the moduk, the third involved a man standing on the road holding a rope that went through the peak of the moduk and held up the base. As the moduk was lifted, the base had to be lifted. The base was kept unfixed as a mechanical device to let the flowers drop when required. It was controlled by the rope on the street. Should the people hoisting the moduk, hoist too fast, the base would not keep up and the flowers would fall out. This unfortunately happened, giving me a good chance to understand the mechanism although i would not be waiting for the LCR. After a bif of shock and a lot of rearrangement, the hoisting rope was up to the higher floor and the flying moduk was succesfully tied up.
A little further down the road the excitement died out and the road returned to it's regular activity. As we reached the end of it, the excitement picked up again. There was a free water distribution stand and some loudspeakers entertaining the neighbourhood. People around seemed to be having some important discussion when a taxi drove up with a big yellow moduk perched on top of it. I could not for the world of me imagine where that moduk was going to go and once there what it was going to do. The men around me seemed to be engaged in an important discussion about its precisely the same thing. One man climbed onto the bonnet of the taxi and opened up a little flap. He proceeded to mix up all sorts of pink flowers into a cane tokri and started, handful by handful, putting it through the flap. Once ready, some men had already taken one of the ropes and attached it to the building on one side of the road. Some other men had gone upto another person's house in the opposite building they were throwing the rope up to him. All these basic arrangements having been done, they began to hoist the moduk into the air slowly. Now watch closely because there are three important movements involved in the hoisting of the moduk, the first two involve shortening the rope that holds both ends, resulting in the lifting of the moduk, the third involved a man standing on the road holding a rope that went through the peak of the moduk and held up the base. As the moduk was lifted, the base had to be lifted. The base was kept unfixed as a mechanical device to let the flowers drop when required. It was controlled by the rope on the street. Should the people hoisting the moduk, hoist too fast, the base would not keep up and the flowers would fall out. This unfortunately happened, giving me a good chance to understand the mechanism although i would not be waiting for the LCR. After a bif of shock and a lot of rearrangement, the hoisting rope was up to the higher floor and the flying moduk was succesfully tied up.
# posted by ateya @ 1:05 AM 
