Local Mahashivratri Mela

The other day we went to the local Mahashivratri mela (fair). Set up on an uneven land behind the Nandibaba temple in Dhokali area the mela was quite big, given the space constraint. Though space utilization was done judiciously, the quality of rides suffered big-time.  

There was an attractive green colored dragon on the right side of the entrance. I was sure I would let my daughter enjoy sitting on a dragon. But to my disappointment the dragon was wailing in an intolerable cacophony. With multiple efforts the dragon was hunching itself with frequent bumps. My daughter got attracted to that green dragon which was refusing to stop (probably to attract customers). But I showed her a better attraction of a train in the middle of the ground.

The train tracks were carefully build on the bulge of the ground. Broken fences were loosely put around the tracks to demarcate the area of the ride. A dark old man with a long white beard managed the train. When I went to place my daughter in the train, he said even I can sit. I made clear that I don't have a ticket. He said its free for me. Mothers can sit with their kids. Hurray! Whether this decision was to attract small wailing kids, the man's no-responsibility attitude(we will not be responsible if your kid jumps and gets hurt in this fully automatic set up) or to keep the empty train packed looking. Anyways, I was happy to accompany her!

After the four boggies of the train were full, that man tried to start the train. There was a bunch of wires piled up on a pole in the middle of the ride. One shabby wire was forcefully coming out of the bunch and joining the engine. He simply pulled that wire, as if some magic will happen. It didn't work. All the passengers were gazing at him expectantly. Realizing the pressure on him, he again tried. Then he did some stunts with the bunch of wires on the pole, and off the train went! We thoroughly enjoyed the ride. After five rounds I thought he would repeat his stunts to stop. But surprisingly, he didn't. The train went on and on, well, till the man was done smoking his tobacco. My daughter was thoroughly contented with the amount of time she spent on the train.

She enjoyed few more rides of planes and cars. I too sat in a ride called break-dance. And trust me, given the infrastructure, the ride was truly awesome. There were many games but they weren't challenging. Last time I went with my husband to some local mela and won a shabby packet of bathing soap bar in one of the games. Later on, I gave it to my maid as we use one specific brand of soap only. The snacks at the food stall were smelling good but they were not looking good. So we completely avoided that way. As usual there was a stall selling artificial jewelry. We glanced through it, but it wasn't that great. 

We freely moved around the whole terrain observing each and every stall. On the way to the exit, which was same as the entrance, we bid adieu adieu to the wailing green dragon, with a wish to not see him again next year!