September, 2003
The Ganpati Chaturthi Edition
Happy
Ganpati! What you see above are statues of the Hindu god Ganesh, the elephant
headed god, also known as Ganpati. He seems to be god of a lot, but is
usually known as a god of wisdom, learning and 'the remover of obstacles'.
People turn to him to get an auspicious beginning to any enterprise; god
of good luck, too. His birthday is at the end of August, and observation
of this has become one of the biggest festivals of the year in the Indian
state of Maharashtra, where Bombay is located. Over the centuries the festival
has taken on added dimensions, from being used as a tool of nationalism
against the British in the late 1800's, to the commercial endorsements and
ten day city wide street party of today's Bombay.
We spent Ganpati in two places: Ponda, a small, regional capital in the state of Goa; and Bombay. In both cities the basic observance is similar: Families or neighborhoods place statues of Ganesh in their homes or in public pavilions and make offerings and prayers ('pujas') over the course of the festival. On the last day the statues are paraded to a nearby body of water and immersed, as people sing and dance, yelling "Ganpati Bappa Morya, Agle Baras To Jaldi Aa" (Father Ganpati, Come Back Quickly Next Year). The style of the celebrations in the two cities, however, was very different.
In Ponda the festival lasts two or three days. Many people place statues in their houses and lovingly decorate them. Special sweets are made or bought and taken to friends and family. Ganesh is a vegetarian, so the families eat vegetarian while Ganesh is in their homes. Garlands of orange, white and yellow flowers adorn the statues. Prominent families have priests come to their homes to lead the pujas, which are given before meals. The evenings are noisy with musicians going house to house, and as fire crackers (and larger recreational explosives) are used during the pujas to get the attention of Ganesh and make sure he's listening.
We spent Ganpati in two places: Ponda, a small, regional capital in the state of Goa; and Bombay. In both cities the basic observance is similar: Families or neighborhoods place statues of Ganesh in their homes or in public pavilions and make offerings and prayers ('pujas') over the course of the festival. On the last day the statues are paraded to a nearby body of water and immersed, as people sing and dance, yelling "Ganpati Bappa Morya, Agle Baras To Jaldi Aa" (Father Ganpati, Come Back Quickly Next Year). The style of the celebrations in the two cities, however, was very different.
In Ponda the festival lasts two or three days. Many people place statues in their houses and lovingly decorate them. Special sweets are made or bought and taken to friends and family. Ganesh is a vegetarian, so the families eat vegetarian while Ganesh is in their homes. Garlands of orange, white and yellow flowers adorn the statues. Prominent families have priests come to their homes to lead the pujas, which are given before meals. The evenings are noisy with musicians going house to house, and as fire crackers (and larger recreational explosives) are used during the pujas to get the attention of Ganesh and make sure he's listening.
Bombay,
being the cultural and financial capital of India, does Ganpati in a big
way. Imagine the streets filled with hundreds of statues, some up to 30
feet tall, with drummers, a variety of explosives, dancers, and crowds escorting
Ganesh to the water. It's like an overly rambunctious and very noisy Thanksgiving
Day parade down every major thoroughfare of the city, night after night
for a week, virtually non-stop on the final day from morning until
well after midnight.
Chowpati
Beach is the main immersion site for Bombay. We were there at 7:00 PM
in the midst of the largest crowd I think I've ever been in, and they say
it doesn't really get crowded until later in the evening. Ganeshes large
and small were coming in a steady stream with well wishers in the hundreds
of thousands. The largest statues or quite heavy and are built on a steel
armature. Teams of men, fisherman mostly, are hired to carry them into
the water, going out as far as they can, with their noses barely above the
water. Being made of unfired clay, the statues are designed to desolve when
immersed.
The
tide was out when we were at the beach at 7:00 PM. The statues heads might
be sticking out of the water, but if they are immersed at low tide the statues
would be easily covered with the rising tide. The problems start when immersions
are done at high tide. There's little they can do about timing - the line
of Ganeshes waiting for immersion is non-stop. We returned to Chowpati Beach
the following afternoon, again near low tide, and witnessed the rather depressing
sight of a beach strewn with half submerged Ganeshes. To a serious devotee,
this is not cool. However, the steel armatures were being recovered
from statues that had been properly immersed. They will be reused next year.
The morning after it was business as usual in Bombay.
September
ends with some miscellaneous pictures of Bombay. Enjoy...
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