It was in 1893 that Tilak organized Ganesh utsav as a religious and social function and introduced the tradition of worshiping huge deities of Lord Ganesha in the community pandals and then immersing them on the tenth day.At the time when social and public gatherings were banned by the
British this festival served like a common point for people of all castes and
communities to come together.
I grew up in Bandra, a cosmopolitan suburb of Bombay.
My earliest memory of Ganpati was driving down toThane another distant suburb
to my grand aunt (grandmothers sister) maharashtrian household who hosted the Ganpati festival at their house every
year. It used to be like a nice picnic, a long ride, worshiping the god and
then sitting down in a pangat to be served a nice maharshtrian lunch with masala
bhat. We just had one or two family friends in the Bandra neighbourhood who would have Ganpati at
their house. On a few occasions, I would visit the big
Ganpati pandal opposite Bandra talao. The pandal would have nice exhibits with
houses and fields or a social message recording. In spite of not have much exposure to this festival, it was in
high school, that I too was somehow fascinated by the idea of bringing
Lord Ganesha home. My parents obliged, by suggesting that I could create my own
little festival at home with our metal Ganpati idol and creating a mini exhibit
by using the little box I made in my art class and a few decorations all nicely
put up on top of a little wooden stool (choki). When it was time for immersion, I could do
that home in a small tub and not contribute to polluting the sea. That is
exactly what I did. Immersed the idol in the tub, nicely cleaned it and put it
back in the showcase.
It was only in the year 2000 when we moved to the
distant suburb of Kandivali is where I discovered the grandness of this
festival. Every single society in the neighborhood had a ganpati pandal. The
normally dark lane that I walked down each morning to get to the bus stop would
be completely lit up with sparkling lights throughout those 10 days. Those 10
days truly felt festive, something I had never experienced before. The first
year that we moved to our new building my father decided to volunteer to do the
decoration for the Ganpati pandal with the help of young boys and girls who
also volunteered to help out. This is where I met other people from my building
and become friends with a few. Some of them continue to be my friends even
after moving cities and countries. Another interesting concept was getting
invited by random people in the building to come and visit their house for
Ganpati. Some people were so enthusiastic they would put up invites on the notice
board of each wing in the building, inviting people to come for the darshan. This
was not it, if you went to their house for darshan you would be offered snacks
or cold drinks. No shyness was allowed, it was not considered good if you didn’t
eat or drink something at every visit. Ganesh Chathurthi truly did serve the
purpose of uniting us with the people in our new building complex.
Well I am all for Ganesh Chathurthi and the spirit of
togetherness that it creates, but there are some things about this festival
that make me unhappy. The huge loud procession of bidding farewell to Lord
Ganesha, contributing to the noise pollution, followed by the tons of waste
that is created in sea and river due to the immersion perhaps killing even more
marine life. I am sure Lord Ganesha would never approve of this.
In the last 124 years the festival has grown in leaps
and bounds, from a small community gathering it has turned into organized event
activities. But today I dream of a different Ganpati festival.
I dream of a Ganpati festival, where idols are never
immersed, they are re-used perhaps metal idols are used. Alternatively, we have
digital Ganpati idols, imagine walking
in to a pandal with 3 D glasses and the
pandal décor to is created with 3 D effects. So much less waste. All money
that is contributed by devotees who
visit the pandal can be authenticated through Aadhaar number and paid towards a
specified charity. Strict fines imposed on
pandals who violate the noise decibel. Non devotional music should not be
allowed at any of the pandals. Pandals also need to be given a certain
identification card through which all the money that is collected as donations or
otherwise is accounted for.
I salute the spirit of this festival and what it does
to unite us all together, but I want
this spirit to also respect our natural resources and mother earth.
Ganpati Bapa Morya!
