Ganapati and Pune

Still can't figure out how to put the photos in the middle of the post so all are on top again. The first is a pretty nice Ganapati there was so much action in that room. The next is a really rich Ganapati that is all real gold. Next is me and a friend with that really rich Ganapati. After that is the immersion at night so the quality isn't that good, it gets much busier than this. Lastly is the procession for that really rich Ganapati on the streets.

This post is intended to inform you about my short trip to Pune and the Ganapati festival that is going on right now.

So on Wednesday last week the Ganapati festival started but let’s first rewind 1 day to the Tuesday. I finally got to have some physical activity on this day, apart from the marathon, that was a little more like a novelty, the trek and riding the trains every day. The later of which is probably the most physically and mentally taxing. I was invited to play soccer or football, as they and most of the rest of the world call it, with my counselor’s son, Tanay. It was really fun but so different from what I am used to. The Canadian fields are like heaven compared to what we played on. So first of all I don’t have any cleats yet so I have to wear Tanay’s old pair, and his jersey, which I really appreciate but they were like playing in clown shoes. We walk to Shivaji Park at 8:15pm, and it is dark out already. So we play in mostly dark, except one pitiful light, on a dirt pitch, with a flat ball, in extreme heat, with bags as goals, and it was so fun. The skill was actually surprisingly good and the people were very kind. I learned a few swear words while playing. It was so hot I was sweating like a hooker in church (thanks Neil) through the whole game and was dirty as the dirt we were playing on by the end, but it was still great fun. I was so tired by the end it was insane, I guess that’s what almost 2 months of hardly any exercise will do to you. The next 2 days I walked like the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz because I was so stiff. Why this was relevant was because while we were playing some Ganesha idols were being brought to their houses via huge processions on the streets. So there was great music and what not.

You may be wondering what this Ganapati celebration is all about so here is the story. Lord Ganesha is the elephant god you may have seen a picture of and we celebrate his birthday. The terms Ganapati and Lord Ganesha are pretty interchangeable from what I’ve heard. The festival is actually pretty confusing but I will try to explain it. So some people, mostly Maharashtrans I think, have Lord Ganesha idols in their house and there are some big public idols on the street. The most common thing everybody yells out on the streets during this festival is “Ganapati Baapa” then you have to yell “Moriya!” It is as common as “Go Flames Go” on at a hockey game. Also I didn’t realize what festival meant back in Canada, we mostly have days (Christmas Day, Thanksgiving Day, Easter Day etc..) what it means here is the whole city is decked out with lights and everything. Another thing festival means is as soon as the sun sets there is a drum beat and firecrackers every few minutes, especially on immersion days (which I will go in to). Ok back on track now, if you have an idol in your house people come over to it and pray. On the Wednesday the festival started so there was no school and an Indian friend took me around to a few of his friend’s places and a few public Ganesha idols to pray. All together we went to 6 I think. Then I got home and my host family took me out to a few of their friend’s places to pray to their Ganesha idols. Then there was one where most people were related to us somehow so we stood in a room and clapped, chanted and preformed some other rituals to the Ganesha idol while a couple of hired drummers made a sick beat. At every single Ganapati you must take a sweet that they supply and eat it, I was so sick of these sweets by the end of the day thinking of them now sickens me. According to belief your family immerses the Ganesh idol in water on certain days. Most commonly the idols are submerged on the 1 & ½ day, the 3rd day, the 5th day, the 7th day, and the 10th day. Most of the house Ganapatis are immersed on the 1 & ½ day, 3rd or 5th day and the big public ones are usually later into the festival. The water which the idols are immersed into is most likely the sea, so you can imagine how dirty the water is the next day. There are other eco friendly options such as big pools supplied by the city or just pouring water over the idol in your house. The way in which the idols get to the sea is crazy, you have the idol on a little wooden cart and you wheel it to the sea, now that doesn’t sound that different. But it is they have hired bands that play ultra loud drums and horns, everybody involved in the procession is dancing, they let off really loud firecrackers and fireworks in the middle of the street and if that isn’t enough some guy always has coloured powder that he will throw on you. I actually wasn’t part of one of these processions yet but I think I will do one on the tenth day. I wasn’t part of one of these processions but I was part of a huge procession for one of the richest Ganapati’s in Bombay. There was gold and precious stones all over this Ganapati and it was at least 2 stories high. There were at least 200 probably closer to 250 people pulling huge ropes with the Ganapati attached it was like ancient Egypt or something. There wasn’t a lot of music or dancing but there were tons of people and it went on really late. On the route the Ganapati takes they give away free food and tea so it was great. There were thousands of people following this Ganapati. I don’t actually have the words to explain how crazy it was. There were garlands hanging from ropes in the middle of the street that would fall onto the Ganapati’s neck. I got home at 4am and slept most of the next day. The crazy thing was the Ganapati was not even at the sea yet when I got home; it would be submerged at 6 or 7 in the morning after travelling all night and removing all the precious stones and gold. The only thing I regret is not pulling the Ganapati, which would have been cool to say. I am sorry if this just seems like a jumble of information but that is really what it was. I wasn’t sure how to explain how different but amazing the experience was, and I am sure I failed in fully capturing the splendor and awe of the event. I hope I gave you a little idea of how much support this celebration receives every year from all the people and how the festival works to an extent.

So lets have a basic recap, I will give you the story of Günter the house Ganapati. The name is just for comedy sake no Ganapati is actually named Günter. So Günter is sitting in his house and people whom are known to his owners come over and pray to Günter. Günter’s owners give away sweets and food to anyone who comes over, then everyone makes small talk for a bit then they leave. Then more people come and pray, and eat. Then they perform some sort of ritual in front of Günter involving a big group of people, chanting, clapping, fire, and music. Günter is a 1 & ½ day Ganapati so after that many days Günter’s family takes him to the sea via a huge procession with music, dancing, firecrackers and colours. Then the family performs a short ritual on the beach and swims Günter out into the ocean. Günter is made of clay so he melts but it takes a while so there is bad pollution in the beaches. Well they actually have swimmers who take all the Ganapatis out deeper because many Indian people don’t know how to swim. That is the story of Günter.

There is also the story of Lord Ganesha that is very complicated and I don’t understand much of it so I will not tell you much but on a basic level: he has 2 mother’s one birth and one who brought him up. Also his father is Shiva, the destroyer, who my families god. Lord ganesha sits on a mouse this is supposed to represent being able to control your temptations or habits because a mouse is all greedy and Ganapati is sitting on him. Also there was another long story of how it is a mans body and some god took his head for some reason and then the first animal he encountered in the jungle he would get his head and it was an elephant hence elephant head. Others say that his father, Shiva, beheaded him and just replaced his head with that of an elephant. So that’s most of what I know.

This festival will go on till Sunday this week. It has been very fun but I wish I had celebrated a little more like joined one of those family processions or something.

Ok that’s enough about Ganapati. From the title there is a second part to this post. I got to travel out of Bombay to Pune this weekend to see Ganapati there. Pune is a very nice place. Instead of 19 million it only has 3 million so, compared to Bombay; it had more greenery and parks.

I really don’t know what to say about the trip apart from what we did. It was a relaxing trip so we just met up with family and ate great meals, saw this shopping area, went to a sports club, and just kinda saw the city. There are lots of reputable universities in Pune so there was an ethnically diverse crowd by Indian standards. There was also this one thing that interested me it was a meditation centre but it was also sort of like a cult, what you do is you give these people tons of money then you can go there and meditate, do yoga, get massages, and do other relaxing and enlightening things. I was so confused by this, what Anil (host dad) told me is that people sell off their lives in America, their home, possessions, everything, and just go live there. It was a very nice green campus but I had so many questions about it, I was so confused. What do they do all day? Don’t they get bored after a few years? Why do they all wear the same maroon robe, is it a cult or something? I was in awe at how people just wanted to find themselves rather than living the corporate created world that we all love.

Pune was mostly just visiting people and eating so there is not much to write about. Just that it was a nice place with a traffic problem. Oh wait one more thing, my host mom pointed out to me a typical Punari person and I was spotting them left and right after that. What she said was that they have a shrewd face, and green eyes. I don’t know if you have ever seen an Indian with deep green eyes but it is memorizing the people must have thought I was crazy staring at them. The shrewd face is pretty funny too like they just did something that was sneaky and no one noticed. I saw a whole family of them and almost laughed out loud.

The language is coming along slowly but surely, the sentence structure is a little different, the noun comes first then the verb like I went to the market is like I market went. Even one of the Indian guys I hang out with says that when I talk in Hindi it sounds like Russian to them. What makes things even tougher is that everyone here speaks english, because of the British influence they learn english at a very young age, english comes almost as natural as their native tongue. I asked an Indian guy if you need to translate things in your head from your language and he doesn't it just all comes natural. One other thing that make things difficult is how there are so many Indian langages being spoken everywhere, the national language is Hindi, the local language is Marathi, and my host father and grandfather speak Konkani, there is also a lot of Gujarati and Punjabi. In India 29 languages are spoken by over 1 million people. Way too many languages for me. I am sure I will start to pick it up if I work harder. That's my little struggle with languages.

Oh ya forgot to mention 2 months in India today. Happy Anniversary.


Ok I think I covered most of what I wanted to so I’m signing out for now.
Remember to leave comments they keep me going.
-Allen