And suddenly, it’s December. This is the month I enjoy the most each year. Christmas and New Year are weeks away. Mumbai lazily begins to shake its limbs and shrug its shoulders as if to reawaken the festive spirit that has been lingering behind since Diwali. Mumbai is no New York. Or London. But it can put on a good show. Store windows are decorated with Christmas themes and Snowmen. Though the city is as close to receiving snowfall as it is to the Moon. Adding to the incongruity is the Santa Clauses with Indian-accented Ho-Ho-Hos everywhere. Christmas trees with packaged gifts beneath in five-star hotel lobbies. Gated colonies and old city quarters with fairy lights in the trees at night. Evenings with Hot Toddy. And TV channels playing ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ with Sir Richard Attenborough as Santa again and again. Winter’s not here yet. But there’s a nip in the air. Mornings are cold. The nights are cozy. And a warm and healing sun lights up the afternoons. It will get colder. I wake up at dawn and hug myself. Somebody told me that if you hug yourself on winter mornings, you remain warm during the day. So I do that.
I have not experienced snow. One winter I was in Shimla. Dressed in a sweater, muffler, and monkey cap. Daytime temperatures were in the single digits. On nights it went to O degrees C. I spent my days walking on Mall Road admiring the shops that have been open since the Raj. Exploring the forests on the Himalayan range with their Pine trees. Telling myself that if not a White Christmas elsewhere in the world, then I would return to the 1857 Christ Church in Shimla with its stained glass windows and cold stone floor one December. The day after I left, Shimla was covered with a blanket of snow. But I seek comfort in a Snow Globe hanging by a gay red ribbon from my bookshelf. It was presented to me by a dear Parsi girl with Christmas always in her heart. Inside the globe made of hand-blown glass, in an anti-freeze mix of colorless alcohol, is a tiny Snowman in a top hat and muffler with outstretched arms. He’s standing in a pile of snow. When I shake the globe, brilliant white snowflakes start falling all around the grinning Snowman like at Christmastime. I do that often during the day. It’s the little things that matter…
About Mark Manuel
The above thoughts/content has been proudly copied from the wall of Sir Mark Manuel. Being interviewing almost every role model of this country and going stronger each day. Mark Manuel is a respected Mumbai editor, writer, and columnist.
With over three decades of journalism in leading publications. This includes the Free Press Journal, Times, Dainik Bhaskar, Mid-Day, and Afternoon. He is famous for his brilliant pen interviews. He himself is a TEDx speaker.
Further
His interviews have been featured in several leading media houses. They include the Hindustan Times, Huffington Post, BBC, and Network 18. Almost every famous person has been interviewed by him in the country from Mother Teresa to Muhammad Ali. His first book is just out. It’s titled Moryaa Re! It is a crime thriller that is perhaps the country’s first police procedural. He began his career covering crime. And in a tribute to his experience and knowledge of this beat.
Several distinguished officers of the Mumbai Police and its Crime Branch collaborated with him to make this book possible. Amitabh Bachchan wrote the forward in a statement of friendship for Mark Manuel and admiration for his work.
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