As we use to do for the past 9 years, we went to the King Circle Ganesha (as we call it) organized by GSB seva mandal today. We thought of beating the crowd by going there early, as Mumbai generally gets up on Sundays only after 11 in the morning. But to our surprise, even at 9 in the morning, it was crowded. We managed to get the darshan of one of the biggest ganesha idols in Mumbai. The rituals at ganesha are very much in accordance with the practices of GSB community, and very different from the other mandals in Mumbai. Little bit about the ganesha idol.. Ganapati at GSB mandal is covered with of gold... The precious metals -- hold your breath --- more than 50 kg of gold and 400 kg of silver are used in its decoration !!! The crown is of 22 kg of gold.! The hands and the 'modak' in the hand are of 6 kg of gold.! The kamarbandh or the waist-belt is of 6 kg of gold.! the weapons weigh 4 kg of gold each.! Other ornaments like earrings, bajoobandh, haar etc weigh 15 kg.of gold! The Sinhasan i.e. the throne and its surroundings created out of 400 kg of silver! Hundreds of volunteers and a large force of police is deployed for the round the clock vigil. The glitter on the 21-feet tall Ganpati at the GSB Mandal in Matunga is actual gold and has been insured for whopping Rs 7 crore. I understand that the budget for this years 5 day festivities there is about Rupees 2.5 Crore.
I have been observing the ganesh festivites in Mumbai for past many years. More than religeous, it is a social event. Communities in all parts of mumbai join together form mandals and keep ganesh and conduct many cultural events for the kids, men and women in the community in the evenings. People keep visiting different ganeshas and enjoy the creative presentations and art work. Many people including artisans get work in creating the decorations and making ganesh murties... large number of flowers are used, so that flower farmers earn good money (not sure, whether the poor farmers make money or the middle-men)... those who play drums etc get work during the immersion procession... also when people visit different mandals, they happen to see friends and relatives... We met today some of our friends and also relatives who we generally meet only during such occasions... Ofcourse, it is an occasion to showcase jewelery and silk sarees for many women... We had nice breakfast also from there... if we had waited, we could have had nice konkani lunch too.... the crowd was swelling as the time passed, and we returned after having another darshan of the ganesha...
Keeping the religeous aspects aside, the festival brings joy to many... even to those who does exortion to collect money in the name of ganesha... there are many ganeshas setup by political parties in mumbai... Last year in my office a groups of goons representing a political party came and demanded huge sum for the ganesh puja... we managed not to give anything to them...
Another aspect of these festivals I like is the food associated with each of these festivals... for janmashtami, we do pooja at home with almost 25 different varieties of prasads, and also special kheer and banana stem salad (its fibre-rich)... for ganesh chaturthi it is different varieties of modaks, for navratri, we use to have chundals (made of legumes and coconut) every evening, all the nine evenings... for onam it is feast with special dishes... such festivals give opportunity for tasting different kinds of food.
All these festivals are more of social than religious. I believe, making it too religious would loose the whole meaning of these festivals itself.. Now its going be Ganesha on the streets of Mumbai for another 9 days... and the immersion processions are a real treat to the eyes, though there is inconvenience to many on the road, it is happy time for many many, in different aspects....
Ganpati Bappa Morya... Mangal Murthy Morya...
Lets all enjoy all festivals and draw happiness...
