Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav

Talk about a city that works hard and parties harder. Yesterday was one of the craziest Sundays I have seen in a long time. I borrowed my fathers car, and much to his apprehension, drove down to Pune to see the sarvajanik festival that we had only heard so much of. Pune has a very very different festival from Mumbai. The old city near shanivarwadi has within it 5 of the most historical ganpati pandals very close to each other. These ganpatis have been called the first, second, third, fourth and fifth ganpati in honour of Pune by Tilak. This adds a palpable sense of romance to the festival and ensures a sort of collaboration across the old city, of mandals, linked by markets. Having parked the car somewhere along the shaniwarwadi, home of the Peshwas, we walked to one of the largest (not physically) ganpati pandals in Pune, that of Dagdusheth Halwai. There was an entire temple constructed out of ply and paint to house the murti. We saw it loom up above us as we approached the chowk and people tended to converge into five lines wide walk up to the inside where the idol was. A path had been kept alongside for passer bys and the market edged along the buildings beyond them. People were leaving their shoes under thellas and trying to squeeze into the mass a little closer to the temple. Security guards in dark blue navigated their way through the crowds telling people not to take photographs and urging them to keep moving. The idol itself was gorgeous, I wish they had a picture I could buy or something, apparently in Pune, every year the fashion trends of the ganpati idols change slightly; this year all Ganpatis were wearing fetas, which are turban like things. The idol looked so beautiful with its feta, I couldn’t imagine it. There are no photos online of it also. Everyone only has last year’s idol’s photo. I don't know too much about this ganpati but i guess its all on dagdushethganpati.com.

Of the other ganpati idols, some were small and others were huge, but all of them were right there on the street, none of them were inside closed spaces, Ninad postulated that this was different in Mumbai because there they just wanted to get you close enough to the collection box! I think it is also because the spectacle in this case is the romance of hostory, whilst so many ganpati pandals in Mumbai having no historical or religious spectacularity, do crazy displays and decorations. We saw Guruji Talim, the third ganpati in honour of Pune, Tulsibaug the fourth, Tambdi Jogeshwari the second ganpati in honour of pune and Kesariwada, the fifth ganpati in honour of Pune. I can't seem to figure where i saw the kasba Ganpati. The entire area was some sort of huge market. The tulsi baug ganpati was almost in a thoroughfare, like one of those underwater tunnels through which you can see sting-rays and things. The whole area was advertised on, it was completely one sort of tunnel of advertisements.
Somewhere rather far away, in the office of the Tilak's Kesari, was Tilak's Ganpati. It shrank under the statue of Tilak and the largeness of the the courtyard. There was a strange palpable silence in that place and i wondered which of the two was being bowed to more. That was rather spooky.

The strangest was ofcourse the art of living building in bangalore. I will let the images speak for themselves!



We drove back to mumbai and i dropped Megha and Ninad at Sion, and headed down south. I knew it was a killer choice but the temptation of seeing Matunga and Lalbaug all lit up was too great for me to resist.
I can say now that i totally underestimated the scale of Lalbaug cha Raja. I inched closer and closer towards it in bumper to bumper traffic anticipating a flyover view of the whole street, and along the way i took many photos of lights and advertisements and political propaganda.
The closer i got, the slower the traffic moved. At some point, we were just standing still while i photographed the fireworls from a mandal somewhere in the distance. Then in an instant i i saw the lalbaug flyover, it was closed going south and all traffic had to be diverted. The entire closed arterial road had become a huge pedestrain plaza and i was covered with people skipping, shopping and laughing on their way to or from lalbaug cha raja. I was devastated to not get even a glimpse of what was happening there but as i milled down from lalbaug to Parel and all the way home, i thought, 'so many people! where do they go everyday? You see huge numbers on the trains and in busses going home going to work going god knows where, but where do they all go? There are not that many on marine drive! there are not that many at the forts and backyards and maidans and beachfronts as many as i saw out on the streets that day! Where do they go at night? back into their homes i guess. There is this constant will to 'themise' them and create public space for them and all those other things but here tonight there was no stopping the coup. Build all the roads you want, we will use them to party, and party all night, with our parents and children and friends and neighbours. We will party for 11 days. There was something surreal about seeing Pune and Mumbai like that. I live in a country with some of the longest working hours and a city with some of the longest travelling hours, and here at the end of it all, we still have the time to party even harder and longer!