Ganpati Celebrations...

At last, the festive season has started. I feel like I've been waiting since eternity for this. Janamashtmi and Ganesh Chaturthi are already over.. Ramazan is in progress, and then Durga Puja, Dussehra and Diwali will arrive to lighten up our spirits.

I simply love the way in which all these festivals are celebrated across the length and breadth of country. There is an air of joy around...streets and shops are decorated...there is a stride in everyone's steps and life looks much more colourful (and yesss, it is the "Sale season" in malls too. Great time for shopping indeed!!!)

In India, a number of festivals are region-centric. For example, Baisakhi in Punjab, Bihu in Assam, Chhat Pooja in Bihar and Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharashtara and AP. There are no grand scale celebrations for Ganesh Chaturthi in the part of country from where I come and frankly speaking, I didn't knew much about this festival. I've seen these celebrations in TV only. But being in Hyderabad nowadays, I can enjoy this festival too.

This year, Ganpati idols were brought to various pandals on Sep 3rd, Ganesh Chaturthi. I could see good number of people thronging the pandals ..particularly at the time of pooja. I was quite surprised to see the number of people who brought Ganpati idols into their premises for the festival. I thought that such large scale celebrations for Ganesh Pooja can happen only in Maharashtra but pleasantly, I was wrong. Infact, I came to know later on that Hyderabad has 2nd largest number of Ganpati idols after Mumbai . Later on, I also came to know that Hyderabad has the tallest Ganpati statue in the country. This statue was 47 feet tall. But unfortunately, I couldn't visit that particular pandal. 'twas in Khairatabad. Nevertheless, I'll get another opportunity next year :)

Lot of poojas happen at pandals during the celebrations. After the celebrations, the idols are immersed in water bodies. Hyderabad has lot of lakes viz Hussainsagar, Osmansagar, Durgam Chervu etc. Immersion starts after 5 days from Ganesh Chaturthi and all idols are immersed by end of 10th day.

There were couple of big Ganpati idols very close to my house. On the D-day, these idols were moved to large trucks so that they can be transported to lake for immersion. As expected, a large crowd moved alongside the deity. People were dancing and playing with gulal. Thats how we bade goodbye to the Ganpati, requesting HIM to come early next year.

Finally, it starts

Welcome All, to my very first blog entry. It is indeed a pleasure to have you here.

This post is titled as "Finally, it starts" and the best thing is that I didn't had to think even once before naming the post like this. As you must have guessed from the name, this blog took a painfully long time coming and I am certainly mighty relieved now that the first step is taken. I have been thinking about unleashing my thoughts on the world for ages now (C'mon, why should only I suffer? :) ), but as they say, just like good food, all good things take time!!!

Hmm... The next question that is staring me: What should I write about? I thought about envionmental issues, stock markets, bollywood movies, sports, restaurants etc etc etc? But considering the fact that I'm not one of those "experts" who come on TV to give their useless point of view, I think that the best option for me will be to make a khichdi of all these topics and write about things that I see, the way I see. This can be my way of contributing to the society. Who knows, the big idea of tomorrow might come from one of these posts (hehe, now you know that I've really very high regards for myself).

Gr8 then. We have a location(this blog) and an idea...So letz get started. I'll soon start posting about anything and everything of my life. So just stay tuned for more. And yes, a hearty thanks for reading all through this.

Cheers


P.S: To all those people, who are being "forced" to read this (just coz I'm standing next to them), you need to post a comment saying "Great Post Mohit"!!! :)