AUSSIE WEEKENDER 19

I was missing one more Diwali in India! I remember Vivek (my project manager in South Africa) was once talking about his missing first Diwali after marriage because of a foreign assignment. He was mentioning this to console me when I was sad missing my first Onam ever missed. I remember clearly that I had decided that I will make sure I don’t do the same! But here I am, missing my thalai-Diwali (that is what we call for the first Diwali after marriage).
I was just thinking of another no-crackers-normal-day Diwali. Then we heard of a Diwali celebrations being held at the Sydney Olympic park every year and the expected crowd is around 22,000!

We were planning to go to this Olympic park from the beginning itself, as one of the fillers. Now it is a chance to see the infrastructure constructed for the Olympics as well as celebrating a Diwali! It is an isolated part for the railway lines. We have to get down at Lidcombe and then take the Olympic park sprint line shuttles, which takes a 10-15 mins to the Olympic park station.

It was a Sunday just before Diwali. The day was hot (I mean it was hot compared to the previous day and this variation makes it worse. So though it may be 28 or 29, you will find it very hot as the previous day it may have been only 20), so we waited till evening. Started around 3, got down at Lidcombe, and crossed over to the Olympic park Sprint line. There was a huge Indian crowd waiting for the train. Though the function has started by 11, it seems most people planned it for the evening due to the heat!

We reached the Olympic park station around 4. It resembled me of the Canary Wharf station in London. One of the most modern stations I have seen in Sydney. I forgot to take the photos thinking I will do it while coming back and by then my memory card was full.

We walked with the crowd to the stadium, waited in a long queue for the entry ticket where people would have stood for getting an entry to see the opening and closing ceremonies during Sydney Olympics! We got to see it was a huge crowd. I won’t see it is an Indian crowd, as most have gone in to this ‘confused’ mode for their dresses, make-ups and all J (like crows fitted with peacock’s attire). There was a stage facing the gallery, and something was happening there. We walked around the ground which was full of stall, mostly food stalls!

We tried some dosai and pav bhaji only to realise that it is all not worth anything! These food stalls were mostly opened by the indian restaurants in Sydney. But I think they were sending the cook-trainees or waiters to cook here, so that their business at the hotel is not going down. Anyway, they know this crowd will eat anything today! We threw half of the dosai as it was still in crude state. Pav bhaji was full of salt! It was again amazing to see all these stalls crowded and people were waiting in a queue.

We could see a lot of Aussies, some with their families, and some Aussies with Indian wives too.
They all seem to be having an Indian feelJ. There were 3-4 policemen (Picture) stuck in between this 22000 people !

It was getting dark by around 6. We moved to the gallery to get a place to see the fireworks and there was a huge Ravan (Picture) ready to burn downJ. Australian Hindu council was organising this function. The stage was facing us, and the programmes had stopped and some speeches were going on. One guy was giving a long speech and was telling all funny things about Hinduism and at last stated that ‘it is the fastest growing religion in the World’! Good that it was Sydney; it would have been different if it were Europe! Aussie is already afraid that he is loosing his identity with all these people flowing in, and now this 22K plus people assembling and making such funny statements…. Gosh! Again, there were a handful of people present from the local administration and even had a message from John Howard (Aussie PM) in the plasma screen. But anyway, the crowd was not listening to it, none even bothered to give a clap for the speeches (anyway, these speeches doesn’t deserve any either). Then, was the last programme on stage which got some attention, the bhangra (Picture ).

The best part of the day started by around 7:30, beginning with the burning of Ravan. It was followed by a memorable firework show lasting for some half an hour. I just started recording the fireworks (picture) in my camera as video clip and ended up in exhausting my memory card!

We were done by 8. Then another problem, all these crowd packing back in to the train! I only realised that most of the people have come in their cars, when I found the train literally empty!was But where was the crowd waiting in Lidcombe while we were coming?! Back home, and edited off my firework clippings to make space before ending the weekend.

Tailpiece: Australia had got three time zones: one is AEST( Eastern Standard time), WAST( West Australian ST ), and CYST( Central Standard Time)one zone in the middle. On Oct 30th, we set one hour ahead for day light saving and there comes the joke. The daylight saving is done by only 3 or 4 states! The rest are still in their normal time! Brisbane which is in our same time zone is now 1 hour behind Sydney! But luckily, Melbourne and Canberra are with us in the same boat. So we call Sydney time now as AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight time). How is that?!

Aussie and me : We mostly struggle to get someone to take our photo. After the digital one has come, we try with the timer or handheld with the LCD screen facing us. That enables us to see how the picture will come. But most of the times, I see someone will come over to us offering help and it always will be an Aussie, not any other tourist!

Tailpiece: Australia had got three time zones: one is AEST( Eastern Standard time), WAST( West Australian ST ), and CYST( Central Standard Time) one zone in the middle. On Oct 30th, we set one hour ahead for day light saving and there comes the joke. The daylight saving is done by only 3 or 4 states! The rest are still in their normal time! Brisbane which is in our same time zone is now 1 hour behind Sydney! But luckily, Melbourne and Canberra are with us in the same boat. So we call Sydney time now as AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight time). How is that?!
Aussie and me : We mostly struggle to get someone to take our photo. After the digital one has come, we try with the timer or handheld with the LCD screen facing us. That enables us to see how the picture will come. But most of the times, I see someone will come over to us offering help and it always will be an Aussie, not any other tourist!