The six pillars of the festive season…

The hairdresser, designer, chef, cop, night club owner and champagne-marketer on Diwali this year

MUMBAI: Rishi Acharya, one of the owners of Ra, rumoured to be the hottest nightclub in town, to which the city’s brat pack converges each weekend, woke up this Diwali feeling a little confused. “I can’t figure it out,” he said, “Even with the Sensex booming and all of that, this year’s celebrations seem low-key. Generally the celebrations start 10 days in advance,” he said, “but this year, it felt like it started later than usual.”

Acharya himself was preparing to bring in the festival playing cards (“at a very conservative level,” he insisted) at his partner’s home. Nevertheless, festival or no festival, he was laying his bets on the young and restless Ra regulars partying hard on Friday night. “That doesn’t change,” he said gleefully in anticipation of the crowds at his popular watering hole at Phoenix Mills.
“It’s been less noisy, with fewer fireworks,” said Annie Chen of Chen beauty parlour at Dhobi Talao, which attracts a cross-section of the city’s female populace to its doors. “May be because of more awareness, people are becoming more sensitive to pollution on all levels,” she said, even as she prepared her sixth client of the day for ‘hair bonding’— a six-hour process used to straighten errant locks. “Many women used the holiday and got complicated procedures done;  we kept the parlour open for the increased business. This year was even busier than last year,” said the Chinese hairdresser.

“We had to open my flagship store especially for two clients so that they could buy something to wear tonight,” said Neeta Lulla, designer to the stars and leading trousseau consultant in India. “This year, because of the festivity in the air, women want to stay with the traditional look — but with a sensual twist: form fitting kameezes, low necklines for sari blouses, and backless cholis,” said the designer best known for dressing Aishwarya Bachchan.  

“Also, in the past, women would come in to buy one special outfit for the Diwali pooja, whereas today, they want a complete wardrobe to cover the four to five days of the Diwali season.” She said. “I guess there’s more visibility and they need to impress their peer group.”

“Is this Diwali any different from the previous years?” mulled chef Ananda Solomon rhetorically: “Well, there’s been an upswing in our clientele at the President’s multi-cuisine outlets like Konkan Café and Trattoria for the past three years. This year what I noticed was that Diwali is being celebrated irrespective of caste, creed or community. Also, though most prefer to stay vegetarian on Diwali day, the number of ordered non-vegetarian dishes had not fallen at our outlets,” said Solomon, who is a Protestant from Mangalore married to a Saraswat Brahmin. The executive chef for the Taj President and the Taj Group’s business hotels had finished work and was going home for the Diwali pooja by 6pm on Friday. “We also celebrate Christmas,” he said.

Another person who was taking a much needed rest on Friday was state additional director general of police Javed Ahmed. “I’m using the holiday to catch up on friends and reading,” he said. “But yes, I too have noticed that there is less noise this year, though we’ll have to wait till tonight, as Diwali night is usually the benchmark,” he said, adding: “The visibility of police on such days acts as a deterrent for crime; but what’s so refreshing is that so far there’s been more light and less sound.”

“This Diwali, the vibe is absolutely fabulous,” said Gaurav Bhatia, head of marketing, Moet Hennesy, India. “And though we believe people are drinking more champagne this Diwali in Mumbai, we also think that’s part of an Indian trend, where champagne drinking is not regarded any more as restricted to a celebratory occasion but more a way of life. And Indians in this regard are really going in for the best!”

And so, the hairdresser, the designer, the chef, the policeman, the night club owner and the champagne-marketer - pillars of the Mumbai festive season - have thus spoken. What’s your take on this Diwali though?