Farewell

 In certain communities from Maharashtra, Lord Ganesha is bid farewell a day and half later after his auspicious arrival. Mostly, this practice reigns supreme in the Konkan area where it rains a lot, and where the Ganesh idol is mostly made of natural clay sourced from the river banks. Hence it is easily bio-degradable.

The practice hence makes huge sense. Rains ARE a terrible threat. Look at what is up, literally up, too, in the Devbhoomi, Uttarakhand. Cloudbursts, glacial lake bursts, landslides are these days the common most feature there. The Ganesh festival is hence celebrated minimally there abouts, if at all. Well, the Lord is everywhere; the festivals in his name differ, as per the geography, the climate and, oh, yes, the historical realities.

Beyond that, conventions, too, matter, I suppose. In Hyderabad, in the Telangana region, it does not actually rain much. Yet the practice there is to literally carry up the palm the wet idol of the Lord!

Actually, bidding farewell can mean two possibilities. it can either mean 'do well' (fare well in the examination) or ' travel well'. Come to think of it, neither matters for the Lord. He always does well. As for the farewell, when does he really go away? Despite the real time physical convention, he does not really go away. He re-turns back to our hearts, there to manifest often!

Pratima@Farewells are tough! May be, the Lord, too, needs that respite though. Imagine being near to millions whose hearts are harder than the biggest boulder!