Ganpati Bapa...

Moriya!

Sunday was the end of Ganesh Chaturthi, a rambunctious Hindu festival honoring Lord Ganesh. For the past 10 days, the streets have been crowded with celebrations that have added to the usual choas of Mumbai. As if regular Mumbai wasn't wild enough, I've had the pleasure of living with crowds drunkenly dancing to drums in the middle of the road at 5:00 pm (a point in the day that the rest of the city refers to as rush hour) or loud 1:00 am parades through the streets. India likes to keep me on my toes!

The history behind the holiday is pretty interesting, and I'll share from you what I have learned from my sources at ASB (so please let me know if any of this is inaccurate!). From what I've gathered, the holiday was manufactured in the late 1800's as a protest of British rule. Apparently the laws of the time made it forbidden for Indians to congregate for social or political reasons, but they were allowed to participate in religious gatherings. So, in an act of defiance, the Indians shot back with what is now Ganesh Chaturthi. In your face, Brits!

Although the holiday itself was fabricated, Ganesh is an actual Hindu god who is quite significant in the eyes of those who practice Hinduism. Ganesh is representative of many things; however, he is best known as the patron god of obstacles and new beginnings. It is said that praying to Ganesh at the start of a new experience or during a difficult time will bring you the good fortune to get through everything alright. As legend has it, Ganesh was just a regular guy until he got himself tangled in a bit of a debacle and accidentally got his head chopped off. This minor problem was easily remedied by replacing his head with the head of an elephant, and voila! The Ganesh we all know and love came into existence.

Even though the festival no longer serves as an act of rebellion, the celebration lives on today. It begins about 3 months prior to the start of the festival when Ganesh devotees flock to their neighborhood Ganesh warehouses to place an order for a statue. You choose the size, color, and other important features of your Ganesh, like whether or not he will carry an umbrella or be next to his rat. Some statues are small enough to fit in a purse, while others are as big as a car and they are all decorated with vibrant colors and sparkling glitter. In my opinion, the eyes of the Ganesh are the most beautiful part of the statue. They are painted on last of all and are drawn with great care because it is said that they are what brings the Ganesh to life. When it is finally time for the festival to begin, large worship rooms are set up all over the city and many families also create smaller altars at home. Over the 10 days of the festival, people perform pujas (prayers) to Ganesh and offer him and each other gifts of flowers, fruit, and money. Seemingly random celebrations, such as the 5 pm dance parties and 1 am parades, happen throughout the holiday as the Mumbai chaos level rises even higher than normal. The festival culminates on the 10th day when families and various organizations immerse their statues into the waters of the Arabian Sea (at least that's what they do in Mumbai) as a symbol of Ganesh's return to the heavens.

Last week I mentioned that I had gone to my friend Sanjana's home to see her family's celebration of the festival, and yesterday I was able to experience the immersion. The day began by waking up to the Ganesh Chaturthi version of a rooster call, when a large rooster-shaped balloon that had flown away from a parade slammed against my balcony window. It was a "cold" day by Indian standards, windy, and rainy, but my friends and I were determined to make it to the beach. A big group of us met up in the afternoon and hopped on the train (y'all know how I feel about that train!) to Santa Cruz so that we could hit up Juhu Beach. We worked our way through the elaborate parades and boisterous crowds that filled the streets to the point where cars could hardly move down the road. There was drumming, dancing, and thousands of people shouting, "Ganpati Bapa Moriya!" After a long and overwhelming walk, we finally made it to the beach which was filled with tons of colors, sounds, smells, and people who were carrying out the final rituals of the festival. It was a truly unique experience to witness.

The above picture illustrates that as interesting as we found the Indians celebrating Ganesh to be, they found us equally as intriguing. Here is our group watching the immersions in the water while a group of Indians prefers to observe us instead. Throughout the evening, people encouraged us to take photos of their celebrations and then took pictures of us as well. Every time we stopped to watch a puja or take a photo, a crowd of people would circle around us and watch our every move. Many wondered why we were there, and several people came over meet us and find out where we were from. I guess no matter what background we come from, it's natural to be interested in people who are different from us.