8 p.m., every day, for 10 days, a change had occurred in our otherwise motionless, emotionless routine of staring at the TV screens. The idiot box was switched off and the idiots in front of it were busy rummaging through the closet to find a rarely worn Indian outfit to wear for the rest of the evening. After all, some
indianness needs to be presented to the social fraternity and to that special personality who is judging our performance, right up-front for these 10 days.
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| Siddhivinayak Ganesh |
No no….this judge was not a celebrity judge of a beauty pageant, nor were we participants of one. Well, celebrity, HE sure is, perhaps the biggest of them all – The Supreme Lord - Siddhivinayak, Ashtavinayak, Ganapatiji! And the 10 days I was referring to is the duration of Ganesh festival, which is celebrated on a humongous scale and with tremendous fervour predominantly in western India and here, in this small island country of Jamaica, while the scale may be minuscule, the per-capita enthusiasm could very well be matching that in India.
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| Delicious home-made food |
Truly speaking, Ganapatiji, commanded equal reverence from all sections of the community bunched together in this touristy city of Montego Bay. The zeal overpowered even the strongest of the undercurrents that may have born on account of professional competitiveness among the community members…well, at least for some time! The energetic chants of “Ganapati Bappa Moriya”, the captivating aromas of incense sticks and the alluring, flickering flame of the ‘aarti’ dispelled any form of negative sentiments to create a pious environment attracting all towards the majestic idol of Ganapatiji, with folded hands, yearning to touch HIM and seek HIS blessings to achieve success in whatever one does. The subsequent distribution of home-made, deliciously mouth-watering ‘prasad’ of sweets and savouries, was the most attractive part of the rituals for kids (and many adults, too).
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| Ganapati Aarti |
The last day of festival saw a record crowd at the venue, resulting in the longest aarti, followed by some awesome food and a revitalized enthusiasm among the passionate, who burned the all-purpose floor to the pulsating beats of the Sri Ganesha Deva song from bollywood.
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| Ready for Visarjan |
As it was time to bid farewell to The Lord, the crowd, the music, the chants moved out to the road leading to the Cornwall Beach. The hullabaloo attracted a lot of attention from the resident Jamaican citizenry which included a couple of cops in their flashing-blue-light Toyota, who may have come with a purpose of reining the crowd but by Lord’s grace, stood escort at the entrance. The Lord took the route to his abode via the Caribbean Sea (He did not have any other choice in any case). The idols’ ‘visarjan’ (immersion) in the calm waters on the full-moon light unwittingly brought a tear to the eye and made us utter “Thank you God for all that you have bestowed upon us and weI look forward to having you amongst us next year” “Ganpati Bappa Moriya, Agle Baras Tu Jaldi Aa”
The idiot box has, since then, got its audience back and life continues,‘break ke baad’
Not saying that my power of visualising the scenes, while reading is strong, here I give it to your words, on which my picturesque imagination was piggy backing.
ReplyDeleteApplause!
That is a modest little description of yourself :). Thanks a lot, Sanjhi, for the encouragement. Will look forward to your opinions and observations in the future, too.
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