Indradhanush over Bombay skyline
Last Saturday evening, I was walking towards Marine Lines Station, South Bombay, to catch a "local" train for a suburb up northwest where I live, when I noticed people looking up at the sky and taking photographs on their cellphones. They seemed excited about something. I looked up and saw the most spectacular rainbow I'd ever seen in my life. The rainbow, showing off all its seven primary colours, arched right over our heads, stretching from one end of the Arabian Sea to the other. It was clearly visible all over South Bombay (now Mumbai), an island city, and appeared so close that you felt like reaching out and touching it. It was a rare sight.
It seemed as if Lord Indra, the Hindu king of gods and the god of rain, thunder and lightning, had raised his potent weapon, the dhanush (bow), and was about to launch his celestial arrows into space. In Hindu mythology, the rainbow is known as Indradhanush or Indra's bow.
Here are some images I couldn't resist taking on my cellphone with a 2 megapixel camera.
Last Saturday evening, I was walking towards Marine Lines Station, South Bombay, to catch a "local" train for a suburb up northwest where I live, when I noticed people looking up at the sky and taking photographs on their cellphones. They seemed excited about something. I looked up and saw the most spectacular rainbow I'd ever seen in my life. The rainbow, showing off all its seven primary colours, arched right over our heads, stretching from one end of the Arabian Sea to the other. It was clearly visible all over South Bombay (now Mumbai), an island city, and appeared so close that you felt like reaching out and touching it. It was a rare sight.
It seemed as if Lord Indra, the Hindu king of gods and the god of rain, thunder and lightning, had raised his potent weapon, the dhanush (bow), and was about to launch his celestial arrows into space. In Hindu mythology, the rainbow is known as Indradhanush or Indra's bow.
Here are some images I couldn't resist taking on my cellphone with a 2 megapixel camera.
Copyright: Prashant C. Trikannad
beautiful. I read a new novel recently, murder in mumbai and one of the characters says the city is divided into those who call it mumbai and those who call it Bombay. A cultural divide.
ReplyDeleteMel, it certainly was. I have been following up on the Indian short stories over at your blog — varied stuff all round. The name of the city was changed from Mumbai to Bombay in the 1990s by a regional political party. Mumbai gets its name from the centuries-old Hindu temple of goddess Mumbai Devi. I use the new name in all my professional writing and correspondence and the old one in my personal capacity. "Bombay" has its own charm.
DeleteI imagine there were some rainbows here after all the rain from Hurricane Isaac. I didn't seen any though.
ReplyDeleteCharles, rainbows are a rare sight in Bombay. I don't recall the last time I saw one. People went crazy when they saw the one last Saturday. It made for a pleasant change from our humdrum existence.
DeleteI didn't know they were a rare sight in bombay. They are not exactly commonplace in Colombo either but we do see them.
ReplyDeleteMystica, rainbows are rare in Bombay in spite of four months of rains from June through September. They occur occasionally though seldom on a scale as last week.
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