Zoobi doobi zoobi doobi pum paara
Zoobi doobi param pum
Zoobi doobi zoobi doobi naache kyun… ganapati bappa moriya!!
As I come back to Maxim city (just flew back in from GOA!!) besides the utter stench of garbage I am drawn to noticing Ganesh Pandals everywhere. They hit you as soon as you land on Mumbai airport as the city is immersed in celebration. As you come out from the airport & start to stare in-to most of these temporary celebratory constructions you start to understand the frailty & the utter essence less charade of this exercise!!
For someone in whose home the GOD comes & resides for all 11 days for more than the past 60 years I feel PISSED, really pissed!!
Let me explain why….
To first understand why this is a farce lets understand the true essence & background of the festival….
In 1893, Lokmanya Tilak transformed this annual Ganesha festival from private family celebrations into a grand public event. He did so "to bridge the gap between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins and find an appropriate context in which to build a new grassroots unity between them" in his nationalistic strivings against the British in Maharashtra. Because of Ganesha's wide appeal as "the god for Everyman", Tilak chose him as a rallying point for Indian protest against British rule. Tilak was the first to install large public images of Ganesha in pavilions, and he established the practice of submerging all the public images on the tenth day. Today, Hindus across India celebrate the Ganapati festival with great fervour, though it is most popular in the state of Maharashtra.
So basically the essence is religion & inter-class unity. However both these objectives are not achieved in today’s day and age!
Now, today it’s just plain & simple dirty vote bank politics
Most Pandals take HUGE donations from local builders to fund for their Pandals (read Political party) after which huge sums of money are naively dropped into “Dakshina” boxes from unsuspecting believers..
what happens with this money is anyone’s guess!!
Where is the Money from LALLBAUG going!! Into a temple trust? NO. I don’t trust!!
Even within the Pandal where is the setting of religion! It’s more of a crass party with a part time DJ churning out the latest bollywood hits!
The matter is fully compounded on the last “Visarjan” day. People, hoards of people preceding huge trucks are dancing on insanely loud music!! In my entire life I haven’t seen people dance this way. You have to be either possessed or drunk!! & we all know what the obvious answer is!
The situation is sad, if not already pathetic. But the question is what can we do from here? How can we ensure something well within the law is done in the morally correct fashion? How can we ensure the real meaning & soul of the occasion?
To this question, I do not have any answers!! Maybe there is just too much money involved! I don’t know..
For now.. its just Zoobi doobi zoobi doobi naache kyun… ganapati bappa moriya!!
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