And Ganesh Chaturthi was celebrated today, muted for some perhaps. At our place, it was the usual works, Ganapathi Sthapana, Puja and a liberal dose of prasadam😊, I had to actually skip dinner today. Off late the shrill noises in media on going eco friendly with Ganeshas has gotten so loud, and this year, it reached some maddening crescendo. I just don't get it. In Chennai, we've always been buying or making Ganeshas made of clay, we either immerse it in the beach / open wells, or in a bucket of water and put it in the garden.
Marketing gimmicks these days include, use of seeds within the Ganesha, use of cow dung in the clay and what not!! And with partial lockdown still around, we have people making the idol with wheat flour, refined wheat flour (maida) and God knows what else!!
All this takes me down the memory lane, as the cliche goes. At our home, its always been an annual tradition with my dad making the clay Ganesha over 2 days, after getting back from work, late evenings. We would sieve, clean and keep the clay ready for him to begin without delay. He would make different postures each year, use his imagination and create a fairly big one, atleast a 2 feet Ganesha. Each year, he would use different style in making the dhothi, ornaments, the orientation of the trunk (valampuri or otherwise). It used to be our little excitement during that week. It was a family event and we all would chip in.
All this was done without much ado, no social media in those days (he has been making them from 1980s). It brought us all together, we enjoyed and savoured the activity, and since we were in Mumbai, we did the Visarjan as per local practices. Today, the tradition lives on with my sister making the Ganesha, and more recently, my niece and brother have taken to it. Matter of time, before I take the plunge too!
Ended up rummaging pics from old albums
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