Random Parades

As the NFL playoffs are in full swing, I often think to myself how nice it would be to be in a place where I can watch them.... without staying up until 3am. Yet there's always the opportunity cost of living in the US, as was just made quite obvious. While biking back to the office from church this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find a huge Sikh parade blocking my way. I initially stood and watched, but there was a huge group of women ceremonially sweeping the streets... right into me, so I decided that it might be wiser to stay mobile, and avoid immense clouds of dust and chewing tobacco wrappers. Thus I ended up biking up and down its length, which measured at least half a kilometer*, though was still unable to make out the purpose behind it; it didn't seem like a wedding, and google does not suggest that there were any major festivals going. A number of kids in the parade itself kept coming up to me to say hello and shake my hand, so I suspect that the participants were perhaps from a more rural or slummy area, where I might represent a more rare quantity. Or perhaps they'd never seen anyone wearing a bike helmet before: in my seven months here, I've only spotted one other person.... of course, another foreigner.

Some of the parts of the parade were pretty awesome. There was one huge float where some old uncles were handing out treats to the little kids lining the sides of the road and blasting music from a large speaker. Which seemed kind of unnecessary, because there were 4 or 5 bands directly behind or in front of that float, but it made the atmosphere even more jubilant, so I wasn't complaining. The bands were pretty cool too, I wish I had taken pictures, but I did not have my camera on me. But the best part was this group of about 20 kids (aged 5-10) packing some serious weaponry, including morning stars. They did some fake sparring, and the kid with the morning star was going pretty crazy with swinging it 2 inches away from other kids' faces. It seemed like on a matter of time before that would lead to bloody disaster, and not wanting to witness the aftermath, I decided to move on.

Sorting through my recollections of 22 years of living in the US, I'm reasonably sure that this sort of thing won't happen to me too often when I return. While it will be nice to see Michael Vick (quarterback of the future! and make the requisite dog-fighting jokes) on any given Sunday, I will certainly miss out on a great deal of wonderful India experiences.

* That's right, I think in kilometers now. Or, should I say, kilometres? I am definitely going to be made fun of when I get back.