Ganesh Chaturthi

Indians really like to party. The 10 days of Ganesh Chaturth celebrate the beloved elephant-headed son of Shiva. There are three primary gods in the Hindu tradition - Brahma is the god of creation, Vishnu is the god of existence (who through a process of 10 significant incarnations also bestowed Sai Ram (Lord Ram) as well as the mischievous yet practical Lord Krishna, often depicted playing the flute or chasing his 14 girlfriends), and Shiva is the destroyer who coexists with creation by necessity. It is Shiva's son, Ganesha, who was beheaded while fighting the demon from Sri Lanka. His head was replaced with that of an elephant.

Ganesh is depicted holding a laddu (an Indian sweet) in one hand and a book and/or pen in the other. He is corpulent (too many laddus!) and has a huge head to accentuate his intelligence - and he is in many ways the rock star of Indian gods.

The Ganesh festival begins with some Sanskrit pooja and the placement of large idols of Ganesh, usually inside a flowered tenthouse on the side of the street, all throughout the city. Communities raise money through door-to-door donations in order to purchase extravagant idols of this deity (we were hit up a few times). Each of the 10 days of Ganesh Chaturthi involves nightly rhythmic drumming and street dancing under the lights.

On one such occasion I was pulled into the melee (it's basically a mosh pit) of dancing and sprayed with pink tikka powder. After busting some serious moves (you would all be very proud - think MC Hammer), I was given "prasad" - a ceremonial offering or gift of lemon rice wrapped inside a banana or beetle leaf. Our landlord, Mr. Banojee Rao took some photos and video of the occasion that I have psoted below. Check out my insane dance moves - I'm a dangerous man!

On most nights of Ganesh Chaturthi we took evening strolls through the neighborhood to admire some of the beautiful idols as well as the merrymaking. There wasn't one such occasion in which we weren't singled out and celebrated as foreign guests - often spending the evening in streetside homes drinking tea, smiling and telling stories (in an extremely limited shared language), bustin' a few moves, and never returning home without pocketfuls of prasad.

On the tenth day the idols of Ganesh are ceremoniously pulled by tractors (think Macy's floats here) to the large lake in Hyderabad, called the Hussain Sagar, in which they are immersed into the water. This year their were 11 large cranes working non stop for about 18 hours dumping all the Ganeshes into the lake. Historically the idols were made from lake mud, but lately plaster of paris has been substituted in order to create larger and more elaborate idols. I'm fairly certain their are significant environmental issues regarding this practice...

In the past 10 days I've learned a lot about Indians and a lot about myself. In 5 years of living at my home in Manchester, NH I have only met a small handful of neighbors - but here, I am invited into everyone's home for tea, "mixture", and conversation. I have danced with my neighbors in the street under the stars and shared food with them wrapped in a leaf. Indians love to celebrate life with each other in a way that I have never learned from my western culture.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE GANESH CHATURTHI SLIDESHOW!

PS - I saw my first cobra (snake) about 200 yards from where the above picture was taken. Pretty sweet!

PPS - You might also be interested in a photostory of the immersions by clicking here.