Eco-friendly Ganesha

Ganesh Chathurthi is one of my favourite Hindu festivals, since it involves lord Ganesha, the most fascinating Hindu God and also the modaks that are made during the festival are my favourite sweet. The vivid memory from my childhood celebrating this festival, involves the trip to the market to buy a small idol of Ganesha for the puja. Couple of days before the festival, the market area used to be bustling with activity, with mountains of clay being kept on the pavements and artisans busy making the idol for the orders. I used to watch fascinated the way the artisans deftly created the elephant face and within minutes, the ball of clay turning into an idol was a real treat. the fun part of the puja was the visarjan or immersion of the idol in ponds or wells that followed the day after the puja. The idol was dropped into the well and the whole family stood around the well watching the idol slowly getting immersed and disappearing.
Though the prices of the clay idol have gone up over the years,  the simplicity of the festival, celebration with a clay idol and its immersion is still a custom that is followed. But after coming to mumbai, the city which is known for its Ganesh chathurthi festival and its grandeur, I realise that the celebration here is not as eco friendly as in chennai, my home town.
We could not find a single market which had clay or artisans making clay idols and we were not interested in buying huge PoP idols that were sold.  The idols  are huge and the festival is a community celebration. Hence the puja and immersion are a grand affair with lot of song, music and dance. Though it has a different flavour here, the noise pollution and the water pollution that result from the celebrations here is really frightening and I wonder what kind of negative impact will this festival have in the future, and just hope that huge PoP idols and playing loud music during the festivities at every corner of the streets is banned soon.
Though a small percentage of the population in Maharashtra is now thinking of eco friendly ways of celebrating the festival, its going to take several years before the entire state changes its way and the damage caused to the nature might be too much by then.

 Huge procession for immersion which stalls the entire city on the day.








Immersion of huge idols     

    The remains of the idols at the sea shore days after the immersion

Bandra fair

I have been staying in Bandra for the past six years and each year , the first week of September becomes a nightmare for commuting even within Bandra. Reason being the ever increasing crowd coming to Bandra around this time for Mt. Mary fest. I have seen devotees walking to St.Mary's church at Shivaji Nagar, Bangalore too. But since the apartment I stayed at Bangalore was not on the main thoroughfare to the church , I never realised how inconvenient this time of the year could be for the residents of the area. Bandra , for instance , is dominated by Christian community residents and even they resent the crowd coming to the fair. It has been increasing each year, and I can't imagine how worse it could get in another decade.
Other than thinking that its a nuisance for the residents, I never gave much thought to the faith or the importance of the occassion itself and till this year, I didn't even think of visiting the church just to see what attracts so much crowd. My interest in churches has thus far been only as a tourist and nothing more.

But, thanks to my friend, who pulled me out of my nest this year and forced me to walk to the church and see and experience the fest. Initially I was scared as to how long it could take to enter the church. It was a Saturday evening, and the weekend crowd was close to few lakhs. But I was pleasantly surprised that it was very much organized and the police and church security were doing a great job. Another pleasant factor was that we had to queue up along the road parallel to the sea front and we experienced a nice , cool breeze and there was hardly any discomfiture despite standing in the queue for close to an hour. In fact , I started enjoying the sea breeze after a while and vowed to come back regularly for evening walks around that area.  Then , I saw people buying wax idols from the shops along the road to give as offering. I got curious, and enquired what they were for. The shopkeeper told me that if a family member suffers from some ailment, we can buy a wax idol representing the ailment, for example, a heart shaped idol for heart patients, kidney shaped idol for kidney ailments, and various kinds of body parts can be given as offering. All of a sudden, I remembered my mother in law asking me to buy a eye shaped offering sold in amman temples in south and give it as an offering for my husband's eye problem.
I realised that I had not done that, and I immediately bought a pair of eye shaped wax idol and offered it at the church. Maybe this was the purpose that drew me to the church. Whether it is "Mary amma" or "Mariamma", it is the faith with which we make the offering that matters is the lesson I learnt this week.

Celebrate Bandra

In addition to local journals and newspapers , now-a-days local cultural festivals too, are becoming a regular feature in India. I have read about the Mylapore fest centered in and around Kapaleeswarar temple, bringing out the culture and tradition of Mylaporites. I have yet to attend that festival, but being a Bandraite, I have been enjoying "Celebrate Bandra" , a biennial fest organised by Bandraites. This year, it has attracted good sponsors and what I find interesting is the location and the wide variety of programs one gets to attend. The venue, close to our residence, is Reclamation Promenade. A stage is set close to the seaside promenade and in the evenings, now with the added glitter of the sealink, the setting is really ideal for one to sit back and enjoy good music or a dance program, free of cost.

It's nice that a predominantly Anglo-Indian community is exposed to Carnatic and Hindustani music along with rock and pop music. It was pleasant to hear Thygaraja krithis and Papanasam Sivan songs in a dance recital. Programs involving common people, like the Antakshari and Karaoke singing too, are part of the agenda. The maximum crowd is for the dance competition involving local groups.

I feel such localised cultural fests are a good way to get to know all types of art and music forms for people, who cannot afford to pay exorbitant rates that the sabhas charge, to attend such programs. Attending such programs with neighbours and friends is like a get together at a common place in our area and that makes it all the more interesting. So hats off to "Celebrate Bandra" fest and all other such local fests!

Mall mall everywhere, not a single one in Bandra!

I have always enjoyed going to malls. Pushing the cart along rows and rows of various eye-catching items gave me a special high. (No wonder, I could relate so well to Sophie Kinsella's Shopoholic series). I loved picking up things which I thought were absolutely essential and items I thought one could not get anywhere else, irrespective of whether they were put to use or not. During my stay at Singapore, Mustafa, the biggest mall there, was a great attraction. It has 5 floors and 4-5 hours could easily be spent just in going around the mall. Once, I and 4 other friends walked in with a bet that we should come out of Mustafa within half an hour without buying a single item. In the end, only one of us could resist the temptation and walk out empty handed-and it definitely was not me (I started wondering whether this friend truly belonged to female species!)
So, when I landed in Mumbai, I had imagined huge malls and shopping complexes- after all, it was the financial capital. And, -surprise! surprise! - there is not a single mall in the most posh Mumbai suburb, Bandra. There are mini supermarkets but no malls.
Initially I was disappointed and was in fact, complaining to all and sundry. Now, a couple of years later, I notice that my spending habits of have changed. Now I just stick to the list of groceries I prepare every month and give it to my regular shop in the bazaar and they deliver the items. Now that I’m a regular customer, I notice that the shopkeeper even replaces products at the smallest of complaints. The monthly bill of expenses has come down considerably. I no longer think that the house lacks this or that; I no longer want to pick up expensive non-essentials during the next visit to the mall. I know there are no malls nearby (thanks to the problems of commuting in Mumbai, I don't even dream of trying a mall in another area) and just adjust to what I get. The best way to maintain a peaceful home, according to me, is to keep away from malls and reduce the expenses!

Moaning in the Monsoon

The famous 'Mumbai Monsoon' is here. But it's not yet raining in full swing! Though the met department and the people in general are worried about the poor rainfall and the papers keep warning us about watercuts, I am one Mumbai housewife who is in fact happy about the low rainfall. I am indeed ready to adjust to watercuts and consume water with more care than walking in the slush and rain water that swirls with paan. Often, you can see people walking ahead of you on the streets, spitting into in the rainwater and then,you are forced to walk through it. If I were the mayor of Mumbai, the first thing I would do, would be to ban paan and gutka chewing in Mumbai. Everytime I walk past a parked vehicle or if a vehicle passes me by, I am doubly careful about any head that pokes out of the window for fear of my saree or dress being smeared with paan. In fact, I suggest that the Mumbai Municipal Corporation provide each citizen with a paan-proof jacket to be worn when they step outside. My daughters and I take care to appreciate any auto driver, whom we observe to be a non-spitter- and believe me,there have been only two of them in the past 3 years of our Mumbai life.

Considering all of this, don't you agree that we're much better off with less rains in Mumbai?

Bandra sealink

There have been too many people singing the praises of the Bandra-Worli sea link in the past few days. As a Bandraite and one who lives close to the sealink, I am also able to see the downside to the sea link being opened. My evening walks at the Reclamation promenade used to be a very enjoyable, with one stretch of the flyover being blocked to the traffic. One could see group of old women enjoying the breeze while sitting down to chat right on the highway. It was a common thing to see children playing, skating and people walking their dogs. Occasional film shoots (Dhoom 2 had lot of scenes shot at this flyover) provided enough entertainment for the locals. Now this stretch of the highway has been opened for the traffic. The lovebirds who throng the promenade have lost their privacy and their space on the highway. Birds that used to fly around the sea link area have been considerably lessened in number.
Over the years, I shall probably have to go through more of the negative effects of the Bandra-Worli sea-link
But, on the plus side, the sea link at night is definitely worth a watch. Despite all the things that have been lost to the sea-link, I think that is one of the most beautiful structures ever to be erected, at least in Mumbai.(The last line is for Shiv Sena supporters not to hound me!!)