As the city welcome its Elephant head God, the remover of obstacles, for the next 10 days (or is it 12??? Not too sure), I am flooded with memories from my childhood and my fascination with the festival.
I can clearly picture myself standing in my gallery, eagerly waiting to catch a glimpse of the idols as they passed by. I remember hopping from one pandal to another, with my family, friends and neighbours, marvelling at the enormity of the idol, the beauty of the decorations, the theme, the set up, but never accepting Prasad or putting tikka (a very catholicky thing).
I recollect waiting to listen to this song that mostly could be heard during the festival (before the advent of the songs we hear today) "Deva-o-deva Ganpati Deva tum say badkar kaun". I would wait to listen to it on Chaiyageet or Chitrahar (the then version of MTV).
On visarjan day my balcony would be crowded with neighbours, who would join the countless devotees who lined the road and pavements to catch a glimpse of the Lalbaug cha Raja, much to the dismay of my poor Honu (my doggie... who would be all upset from the beating of the drums and crackers).
Here was a festival that was unique to my city (till I discovered that other cities and states too celebrate it) and filled me with a feeling of devotion.
However, over the years this feeling has vained. Though I am still fascinated by the festivals and the idols, however, the realisation of the chaos and inconvenience that the festival causes began to get to me. It is not that I hated the festival, just hated the way it is celebrated today. Over the years we seem to have lost sight of the real purpose behind celebrating the festival. Some where down the line, the way we celebrated the festival and the reason why we celebrated it, has totally changed (just like Diwali and Christmas).
What was meant to bring society together is now putting a wedge in it. It is a now a competition of one upmanship, to be better than the next. Gone are the devotional songs, replacing them are the Bollywood ones, that sometimes leave you perplexed and embarrassed.
For the next couple of days, the already jammed roads of Mumbai will be stretched beyond it capacity, adding to the chaos and traffic that has been caused by the construction of the metro.
Sometimes I wonder how people stand in serpentine queues for hours together for just a couple second of Sarahan. But the same is also true for the Bandra Fair where you have to brave the g push and shove for just a couple seconds of glimpse of Mother Mary.
Previously, the Ganpati idols used be brought quietly at night without much fanfare. This has been reversed, now people bring Ganpati with the same fanfare as they would do for a visarjan.
Mind you, this not just a Hindu thing, other festivals too have slowly been loosing their meaning. Very often Christ goes missing from Christmas which has now become all about Santa Claus and an endless fashion parade.
That said, I still find that serenity and peace and devotion when I spend time at my friends place. Still marvel at the beauty of the murti and the decoration. But most importantly I find the peace that at times has been lost.
We all have the right to celebrate our festivals as per our traditions. These festivals are part of the fabric that's Indian culture. But don't let your celebration be some a pain for others.
No comments:
Post a Comment