Notting Hill Carnival

The first carnival of my life! Notting Hill Carnival is supposed to be largest carnival of its kind in Europe and we were all the most enthusiastic to be part of this great event.

check this link for more details of this carnival.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notting_Hill_Carnival

Monday,the bank holiday is supposed to be the most spectacular day and the preceding day, Sunday is meant for kids.

Rak and me embarked on the journey around 9.45 and reached the place around 11.00. We dint have to search much for the place as there was a huge crowd flowing in and all we had to do was make sure that we followed the herd :)

I almost missed Rak near the carnival entrance only but to see him with his hands outstretched.On closer inspection, my guess was proved right! Free drinks! Not to be left out, i too collected my can and we set out further for more goodies....

The drink was some tropicana stuff and chilled! I wonder how people could drink such chilled stuff on a cold morning..but eager not to waste any free stuff, we both gulped it down. :D

and then where to go next? our herd seemed to come to a stop still with crowds sitting/standing around in groups. Both of us were so proactive enuf that we were lost in this huge crowd with not even a map!

But we dint bother much and decided to follow the universal instinct. People seemed to be oblivious of what others did and everyone just seemed to be taking snaps,eating and drinking.

But as i said, some people kept moving further down the road and so we decided to take a stroll. The roads were crowded by people on both sides and we had to walk right through the middle. I kept getting the feeling like we were like celebrities walking down an aisle with our fans on both sides of the road except for the fact that noone even noticed that we existed here :) . However i felt so bold in walking down the road like that along with Rak.

Occasional stunts were given by one gang consisting of some muscular guys and hip shaking girls who were painted and dressed like some red indian tribes..we tuk some snaps of them and found a bigger crowd in the road to the right of the one we had intially entered. We found some place in a wall near some Indian people(they were speaking hindi). We clambered up the walls which were armed with pointed iron railings to keep off the trespassers. We supported ourselves on the branches of the trees stooping over and awaited our carnival. Rak was so indignant when he found our neighbour Indian girl smoking. He felt that Indians should not forget their culture nomatter which country they are ! Better said than done!

It was funny to hear songs in foreign languages..funny because it sounded weird without being able to understand them and i wondered how we mite sound to others!

Some girls loaded with beer joined us on the walls.. We dint have to wait much and the floats started to float in....The music was amazing and there was not a single soul who dint atleast tap their feet to the rythm. We could feel the pounds of the music in our hearts and that is why Monday, the Bank Holiday and main day of the event is meant only for adults though i did find some kids in there.

The floats were amazing.Rich vibrant colours and costumes added with wonderful music made every scene spectacular.

It was then that it struck me that these carnivals resemble the festivals we have back in India the only difference being that here they celebrate just being alive and kicking whereas in India, even our joys are divided by communities and religions. Yet, when i asked myself the question as to whether i would like my native ones more, the answer was a strong yes. Maybe its because as they say old habits die hard! and moreover they do have a more emotional touch..

ok back to the roads....There were men and women walking on long sticks and their elegance made us hold our breath. Rak kept clicking on and i shall paste the link in this post.

After some 5-10 floats, we saw people milling towards our direction and we couldnt make out a thing. But the sight of a big crowd coming towards you is a little tempting to flee and so we dint resist. We got down from the walls and decided to head the crowd. It was funny in the sense that first, we dint know where we were and 2, we dint know where we were headed.But still we kept floating :D

We found the much awaited makeshift toilets...first timers :D....seemed quite ok i should say..and by then we were in middle of the crowd. We kept going until we reached a junction where the crowd seemd to disperse in 3 directions and we were again confused. But the sign of foods helped us in making up our minds. We headed straight to find many food stalls loaded with delicious aromatic food. It looked very enticing to taste the food and give commentaries like in some travelogues but we were skeptic.Hams were also plenty within and Rak had already confused me that Hams meant the backside of pigs! So better hungry than puking, we moved around.

Jerk chicken seemed to be the star in almost all the stalls and we kept peeping in almost every stalls to figure out what it was. Finally hunger got the bets of us and we treated ourselves to fried rice and a BBQ(thats barbeque) chicken....Wow! i loved the touch ups they have used!

and then we kept wandering along the streets viewing all the activities going around.. On some lanes,loud music was set up and open discos were going on. Got to see the real life DJs...wow the black are really kewl...the way they keep on babbling in the rock and roll rhythm is really amazing..

Finally we chanced upon one more lane where the crowd was mightier. We came across several floats again. These were more vivid ones and more livelier.

Most of the floats were from the West Indies and their energy and stamina levels,both for men and women alike are awesome. They kept dancing and shaking their hips to the loud overflowing music.

The road on which this event was taking place had apartments on either side and some apartments were cashing in on their locality ...they were offering comfortable carnival watching spots. Beers were also being sold and people dint seem to mind the high rates..

Police kept patrolling around ..but people dint seem to be unruly and we couldn't see any police cordoning. They were mainly there to guide people in finding their way to their destination.

Oh, and i saw some people smoking grass......they just wrap some straw kinda stuff in a white paper, light it and keep puffing off it.

6 hours at the carnival started taking the toll on us and we had to retreat by 5.00. There was no difficulty in finding our way back and the police did a mighty good job. Even in a crowd, there was no fear of unwanted poking and so there was no need to loose cool.

we graced upon KFC on our way back and the place was so crammed up. I guess they couldnt manage the carnival crowd and so the place was strewn with empty boxes and ketchups.But we were so hungry to be put off by all this mess and we promptly cleaned off a table and started gluttoning.

However i couldnt finish mine and Rak had me scared that buses wouldnt allow eatables on board. I believed him so much that i made a funny scene by trying to hide the KFC box behind my legs while boarding the bus,only to find people inside eating and drinking comfortably.

I was so exhausted to pick up a fight and so we spent our return journey musing over the carnival.

Rak badly wanted the stamina of the carribean people and i wanted their stature.

Wishing hard on these,we made our way back home and ended up our day with a movie and a round of home food :D

gluttony! long live thy glory!


here are some pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/geniusinside/NottingHillCarnival?authkey=1wjcbP5gIWo