The Arrival
For me Ganeshotsav has always meant a cartload of happy memories. Our family Ganpati used to be at my Dad's uncle's place every year. It was a small house with gray stone flooring and a constant roar of traffic under the windows. A place was designated for the visiting Lord. The previous evening some of us would go and get the statue whose face would be still covered with a silk cloth. There would be decorations made of thermocol. The next day morning all of us would go there again for the "sthapana". A long pooja ensued followed by arati sung in a particular tune with "zhanja" and bell as accompaniments.
After all this, all the women sat in a room to make delicious Modaks (they are like Momos filled with coconut and jaggery mix). All young girls who wanted to try their hand at it were allowed to mess up a few as well. Yours truly kept being a part of messing up gang till she got married and never made Modaks again! ;)
Then garam garam modaks with ghee poured onto them were devoured along with rest of the basic khaana. Talkathon amongst the whole family catching up on what's been happening would reach cacophony levels! All in all total dhamaal.
The fond farewells
The Visarajan - the day we say Good Bye to Lord Ganesha asking him to come again next year, is always tinged with certain sadness. We would all again go to uncle's house and the idol would be taken to Dadar Chowpatty. A last aarti would be sung on the beach among masses of people all doing the same, in their big and small groups.
The Prelude
Even more fun used to be Ganeshotsav in the building. I grew up in a chawl and we have a common Ganpati, more popularly known as Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav. The preparations would start months in advance for the celebrations to go off smoothly.
Someone would be working on the pandal and someone else on collecting the money from entire building. Some of us would be participating in a whole 3 act marathi play and others would be practicing their dance performance. Singing skills used to be brushed up and ideas for new competitions worked out!
The play practice went on every night for almost 2months. The dance practice happened in our terrace every evening. Music players were begged for and so was space to do the play practice. Towards last 15 days everyday one family would volunteer to give snacks and coffee to the team. Day before the ganpati came, we would all be cleaning the chowk with jhaadoos and mild acid that would burn out the dirt. The previous night everyone would be working hard on decoration and all that jazz! The whole atmosphere would be charged with excitement of next few days. Those were really the days!!
And not to forget late night jaunts at 2am to have bhurji paav and cutting chai with the whole gang!! For quite a few years, the guys would get parcel for the girls till i insisted and then begged these guys to take us too! what fun! bhurji never tasted that good before or after!
The Celebrations
And then those days went by in a flurry of activity. Fancy Dress and dance competition for kids where they outdid themselves every year. Anatkshari and dumb charades for adults that lead to major leg-pulling and happy camaraderie. The arati was sung everyday with gusto. Ours was one of the few Ganpatis where the arati was not just put up on recorder. A live dholak played by someone in the building played the beats of arati that went on for at least 45mins with volumes never going low. If some of us didn't know the arati we made up by clapping harder! :p
One room would get transformed into make-up room on the day of play and dances. We would all be white faced with amateur make-up done by fellow residents. But we were proud of it nonetheless because we never paid a single paisa to get some orchestra come and play for us or just show movies on projector. We worked hard for every event and its success and failure was our own to embrace.
Through all this arguments happened and sentiments got hurt too, mostly due silly egos. But at the end of the day it was our pride as a group at stake and we would make up and go ahead and do our best.
Last year I was on Mumbai post delivery and I made 40day old Cubby participate in Fancy Dress competition as a body builder! :p This year I will miss being a part of it, but I know like every year I will get nostalgic and smile at all those very special memories.
I have declared to M that I am gonna try and make Modaks tomorrow. Now M is someone who takes food very seriously and I better at least attempt them. So wish me luck, people!! I will tell you how they turned out!
Till then, Ganpati Bappa Morya!!
Ek, don, teen, chaar, Ganpaticha jayjaykar!
aani Pudchya Varshi Laukar ya in advance!
ps: On an important note, do try and buy small clay idols with natural colours instead of PoP ones commonly available which harm the environment since they don't dissolve completely when submerged. It's the least we can do in our human capacity for this divine occasion.
pps: the order is kinda awry, but Ganpati brings so many memories, it seemed almost impossible to even put them down, forget doing it in an order! So, pls to excuse! :)
