The last day of the ten day long Ganesh festival! Apparently, the household idols are mostly immersed along with the Gauri immersion, or mostly by the seventh day. So on the Anant Chaturdashi day, it is mostly the immersion of the public idols.
Across Maharashtra, there are immersion processions. The well-known ones, however, are the Mumbai and Pune processions. The Mumbai processions are well-known for the huge, very tall idols. Each year, they are immersed in the sea.
I would not know about the Mumbai scene. May be, given the high tide tomorrow as it is the pournima, the immersion actually happens. The scenario in the Hyderabad Hussein Sagar used to be absolutely dismal though. It used to be very difficult even to see for days on end the broken idols, colours lost, the rusting iron frame broken in to pieces.
In Pune, of course, as everywhere, the immersion procession is song and dance, both literally and figuratively. For one thing, it runs in to the next day. The lovely light and sound installations fade away with the rays of the morning sun, but the song and dance never stop, instead continue till almost the next evening.
The first five 'celebrity' Ganapati mandala's mostly use traditional forms of dance and traditional musical instruments. Even their processions last for hours on end. Other prestigious mandala's generally leave the installation mandap/premises mostly after midnight. Eye catching is the decoration. During the 12 midnight to 6 a.m. duration, just the traditional musical instruments are allowed which is a mercy.
Why do I say so? Well, most mandal's have both, a large Dhol-Tasha Pathak (it performs in every chowk) and a 'huuuge' Dolby wall. Vulgarest of the vulgar songs are (mixed-n-)played, and dead drunk devotees(!?!) dance wildly!
The poor police. One truly pities them. Tomorrow when the procession would be completed by 5 p.m.ish, they would heave a hugh sigh of relief. Of course, not every mandal would do the clean up act immediately. May be, by Monday, all would be back to normal.
This year, given the Monday holiday, there must have been capacity crowd. Such enthusiasm is absolutely great. Indeed necessary it is to celebrate the traditional festivals with fervour. Yet is not it equally necessary to ask ourselves certain critical questions? Should vulgar songs be played? Should ugly gyrations be allowed? Should not there be a rough schedule that must be followed? What say?
Pratima@Should immoderate enthusiasm imprudently flaunted be allowed to taint the purity and piety of the festival?
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