I am refering of course
to Ganpati or Ganesh - The elephant God. After 7 or 8 years, Hari and I were back to being immersed into the Ganesh Festival celebrations this month. 10 long days of Ganpati displays, prasadam, mandal visits and more.And the amazing visarjan of course where the Ganesh got immersed in the sea according to tradition. I was returning home from the airport on the 10 day with immersions happening in full steam.
It was such a joy to be in the middle of it all. I was so tempted to join all the 'sidees' on the street dancing away as the Ganesh idols inched slowly towards a sea front. I had missed this sight and this energy for a long time and was so happy to be back.
It was amazing to also read so many stories in the papers and hear of neighbours and friends (of my mother:-)) who were resorting to using fiber glass or silver ganeshas this year for the festivities and hence not immerse the Ganesha in the sea for environmental reasons.
It is interesting. I always thought it would be hard for Indians to break out of the mould of 'Tradition - this is how we have always done it' , especially when it came to matters of God or religion but I was proved wrong here.
BTW, Hyderabad also has visarjan. Very similar to Mumbai actually......Fun!
Maya
1 comment:
Looks pretty cool. Somehow I never got the Mumbai effect anywhere else. For instance, in Chennai, there is constant battles on which streets Ganapathi Bappa can ride through before Visarjan, etc. Nothing like Mumbai for Ganeshotsav!
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