yeah...Mumbai's favourite lord , is gonna go swim today. After 10 days of being pampered with loads of Modak and other sweets, finally he decides to go shed some weight! Tommorow onwards, he'll be the usual 'Tuesday special vignaharta'. Much like any issue which becomes a ' breaking news'...and then is a 'broken wing'...
This time around I realised lord Ganesh was asked to gain some more weight.
I was never a big fan of visiting pandals and being the 'darshan lena' types. of whatever I observed, this time the pandals were built in such a way that tresspassers by could not just take a glimpse of the lord. It came with a price ...of standing in queue, and making your way right upto the murti. Pandals which were being built differently all these years, did defer this time.That's where I say, Ganesha had gained some more weight!
Or was it the politicians secretly conveying their wild wish to him? More than the Lord himself, politicians loved to take centre stage.That's always the case. Huge posters, banners and signs with a SMALL pic of the lord beside the huge pic of the political lord of our city! Are we really celebrating lord ganesha?Every corner with a huge Ganesh pandal belongs to...or rather is 'sponsored by' some great guy. Good social work....aha! In my opinion...visarjan should then include them also!
A super cynic; I still haven't learnt to differenciate between a good politician and a not so good one. Anything new for the public..is just 'a meherbani on us' and not 'for us'. The best example is the roads....its just made- partly concrete, vastly pot-holed ( cratered)...with a huge ' sorry for inconvenience' board....> forget it...can't express my love for them here...!!
If only it was their love for the lord and their spirituality that was at display...
Some of my friends thought that the decoration and the changed pandal format was done right as ' aisehi fukat mein kya ganpati dehkneka, andar jaake dekhneka na'....'rastey se kya zaankna'....and all that.To me, the best ganesh murti...is and always will be the one at my fav temple. No dramatics involved! Atleast his door is open to all...
Would love to treasure sentiments of all...but can't do that. Afterall, I love my opinions....
3 comments:
I miss the Ganesh Chaturthi festivities so much here :-(
i love ur opinions too ;) ... nicely written.. But its always fun to see ganesha in different avataars with all the decorations in these mandals. Trust me. I'm gonna drag u next time :)
Ekdum dhaasu points- esp abt politician posters. That is a common sight during dahi-handi.
Till 2002 or so, it was a habit to visit as many pandals possible with family, friends and we used to bump into other relatives at some location. Now its only memories, as there is no time for all that.
Anyway, bappa pudchya varshi yenaar.
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