11 days of joy, enthusiasm and festive mood has suddenly vanished. Lord Ganesh has left us only to return back next year. A very common slogan used by all his devotees is 'Ganpati Bappa Moraya, Pudhchya Varshi Lavkar Ya' which means please come sooner next year oh great Lord Ganesh. Plethora of memories, facts and incidents flash through my eyes every year during this festival and it is only now that I attempt to jot down all of it.
First and foremost I must appreciate this idea of the great man behind this festival. Bal Gangadhar Tilak a.k.a. Lokmanya Tilak was visionary and shrewd, quite certainly, to have made this a public festival. Back then, unity was missing among Indians (it still does at times) and it took a subtle push by this man to make people interact, share their thoughts, talk about their interests, feel togetherness. People interacted with more people, arrived at a common cause which was eventually harnessed by Gandhiji to bring an end to British Raj. In hindsight you cant avoid realizing the efforts of Lokmanya Tilak. As they say, It may take 100 hits to shatter a rock, but was the first hit not effective?
I have a good time every year during this festival. As a kid I enjoyed Ganesh festival at my grandparents place. We do not host it now, ceased way back in '92. But we certainly visit a lot of public and personal Ganesh idols. Unfortunately, this year I could not visit many but every year I visit close to 10 idols at my friends and relatives place and about 5 public Ganesh idols. My favourite being Lalbaug cha Raja, Lalbaug Ganesh galli, Mumbai Central cha Raja, Wadala GSB Mandal and Fort Market cha Raja. Good time to catch up with friends and relatives, otherwise social life is so very difficult these days.
A quick fact about this auspicious festival as told to me by my cousin Himanshu. Chaturthi, the 4th day of a month, is a bad day. Ganesh chaturthi thus happens to be the worst day of a year. As the superstition goes, if you happen to see moon on this day you are bound to be accused for some offense you have not done. Yet, we invite Lord Ganesh to our home on this evil day. This is because Lord Ganesh will help us to fight and keep away these evil spirits. That is why we worship him as 'Vighnaharta', the one who eliminates all our troubles.
One thing I am disappointed about this festival now a days is the amount of time required to visit certain famous Ganesh idols, like Lalbaug cha raja. I vividly remember taking just an hour to visit the idol just 5 years back. This is all because of media hype and people are crazy to stand for 18-20 hours just to catch a glimpse of the idol. The recent mishap at lalbaug, when the roof of a store crashed killing 1 and injuring 5 is the outcome of this madness. I also happen to see a woman giving away her baby to people, asking them to pass it on to eventually reach the chariot carrying the idol during visarjan. Fortunately, the baby came back to her hale and hearty but it could have been dangerous because the crowd was humangous and accidents can happen anytime. The unfortunate incident of idol crashing is a combined result of poor roads and insane crowd. It is hightime people realize that it is much better to take darshan from the safety of their home through tv and internet. You now have websites showing all the events like arati (Lalbaugcha Raja Official Youtube channel) and its a comfortable experience from home.
One memorable year of Ganesh festival was 2006. I had graduated that year and was preparing for MBA entrance, so I had a lot of spare time. Some friends and I decided to attend the entire visarjan. Pratik, Viraj, Tanmay, Abhishek, Ameya and me wore kurtas and set out in the morning itself. We roamed in the vicinity of lamington road, girgaum chowpatty, chira bazaar and nearby places. I bumped into a lot of long lost friends, met some special people, had junk food and lot more. The best part was to dance in the procession of Lalbaug Ganesh galli idol. They have the best dj and banjo orchestra to set up dancing mood of everyone. It was the first time I was dancing on the street, with nothing to worry about. Lalbaug cha Raja idol would reach girgaum by 5 am, so we took some rest at Pratik's place and were up again by 4:30 am. That darshan was overwhelming, the sheer number of devotees crowding the narrow lanes was unrealistic. Garlands, coconuts, sweets, etc were thrown to devotees by volunteers of Lalbaug cha Raja from the Lord's chariot and people wanted to possess these. Fortunately, I could sneak in a garland, albeit a torn one. The next day was all for sleeping and resting, but the enjoyment we had could not leave our discussions for many weeks ahead.
I also cant help ignore this incident, which happened with my sis Sayali during Ganesh festival in early 90's. Navjeevan society, at mumbai central, is a perfect vantage point during visarjan, on the way to girgaum chowpatty. That year, me, Sayali and mom went there in the evening to see all the idols on their way. It's quite a popular spot so obviously attracted a lot of crowd. Suddenly Sayali was missing! She was just 4 years old then, I guess; too young to find her way back home. The wrinkles on my mom's forehead, with her eyes popping out was one of the most scary and concerned expression ever exulted by my mom. She was petrified, maybe she remembered something similar that had happened with me as well. I was old enough to know all the nearby area so she told me to look out in one area and she did the same elsewhere. By Lord's grace, mom found her in just 5 minutes; she had been attracted to the balloon and toy vendor some distance away. Mom grabbed both of us, thanked the idol passing by and headed back home.
My feelings for this festival and Lord Ganesh span across so many incidents, years and I feel so thankful about it. I hope to experience more interesting events and if they do happen during this festival it would surely be up high in my nostalgic library.
