We Indians are blessed with number of festivals, through out the year. Each festival has its own significance, its own way of celebration. Thanks to the secular nature of our country, religion is not a barrier when it comes to celebration.
People love festivals for different reasons. Some are attached to its cause, some are attached to the God it celebrates, some like the way of celebration. While some like me, just enjoy the mood they bring along and we don’t bother about anything else.
I look at all the festivals as a reason for our family reunion. I love to spend time with my cousins. And I like that each festival brings us together. Now that we all are adults, we have our own schedules, we just meet for a day at some one’s la chez, spend some time together, have a meal together and go back to our respective homes. If some one is outside the town, then he or she is missed. In that sense all the festivals are same. Except one. The Ganesh Festival.
Ganesh festival is widely celebrated in different parts of India in the name of Lord Ganesh (the elephant God) During this festival, we bring home Idol of Ganesh, lord Ganesh is treated as our guest. He comes with a tiny mouse. Lot of Hindu Gods have different animals as their vehicle. It is a way to make people remember importance of different animals. Mouse is the vehicle of Ganesh. It signifies that no matter how small a size of a person is, they can carry important responsibilities on their shoulders.
The guest can stay in our house for 2 days, 5 days, 7 or 10 days. We prepare Ganesh’s favorite sweet Modak. It is a sweet made by giving proper shape to wheat or rice flour and stuffing it with sweet mixture of coconut. On the last day we immerse the idol into water. It means Ganesh is returning back to his world after filling our lives with happiness and hope.
The festival also has a mention in India’s history of Independence. Indian freedom fighter, Lokmanya Tilak, made this a public festival with the idea to bring people together and spread freedom awareness.
It is the only festival where we all cousins try to make sure that we meet one day before the actual festival. We do Ganpati decoration together, we play carom with a cult Bollywood movie in the background, we help each other with the chores, we have a sleep over. We chit-chat, we crack jokes, we make memories! Next morning, we go together to bring the idol of Ganesh, we say prayers and we even help in the kitchen. For following 5 days people are in and out as per their convenience. We try to meet again on the 5th day to say good bye to Ganpati bappa and to make some more memories.
This year it was different. Due to “the corona pandemic”. We definitely didn’t gather at one place. Most of us couldn’t come in person at all. Thanks to the boon side of the technology, we could at least have video calls and get an e-darshan or attend an e-aarti.
But it was different for me in other ways too. Every year it is our Hema aunty who takes the lead in Ganpati decoration. We follow her instructions, with lots of chit chat and gigling going around. This is happening for more than 2 decades now. But this year, for the first time, I made my own decoration with my own idea! Hema aunty also liked it. Moreover, I also did a lot of cooking than usual. I didn’t just help in the kitchen, I owned the kitchen! I feel so proud of myself. I didn’t realize that so many years, unknowingly, I was learning from my aunty and everyone else about decoration. I also didn’t realize when I learnt to make properly shaped modaks in middle of all the chatter.
They say, there is an opportunity in every adversity. This pandemic gave me an opportunity to be creative. It gave me an opportunity to be independent and learn to cook on my own.
It also gave me an opportunity to be grateful for my family, my cousins and all the memories we have made.
Dee Talks 