Mom's a big big fan of Lord Ganesha :) I didn't know if it was also true about me but I realize it is :) For the last 25 years, she's lovingly welcomed Ganesha home and tended to him carefully for 5 days and then bade him a tearful goodbye during the Visarjan. No we're not Maharashtrians, and no, they aren't the only ones who welcome Ganesha into their homes :)
About 10 years ago, mom decided to revamp the scale of celebration at home. Ever since then we've done something new and creative each year, with silken cloth, little tables, decorative material and flowers. We'd house Him in a lovely house we'd constructed and decorate Him from head to toe till He looked absolutely smashing :) And then on the morning of Chathurti, Amma would get us to be ready by 8 am and huddle everyone into the living room where we'd all pray together.
The unvarying tradition however, was to play the Ganesh Mahamantra cassette for about 2 hours after the morning puja. The house would reverberate with the sounds of "Sukhakarta Dukhaharta" and "Gajanana Sri Ganaraya" in Lata Mageshkar's voice, and my mother would go about her chores in a state of absolute bliss.
Of course, the geek that I was, I'd crib endlessly about how i couldn't study in peace with all the noise. (God, how spoilt WAS I!?!). Mom normally loses her arguments to me in the spirit of keeping peace, this was the one thing she'd never back down on (More power to her, yeah!:D )
And today as i live hundreds of miles away from home, on Vinayakar Chathurti, I sorely miss the songs i cribbed about while I lived at home :( Having discovered the internet and online music as I have, however, i was inspired to look for the songs I love on MusicIndiaOnline - and guess what?! I FOUND THEM!! :DDD
They've been playing in a loop for a while now and I could swear, both my mind and my room feel better than they have in months! :) Add to this the fact that I finally wrote out an email I'd wanted to for WAY TOO long but couldn't until I was completely convinced about it myself. I've done it now :) and the rush of happiness and of inner peace is palpable :) Maybe its just a coincidence that its Chathurti today ... maybe not!
Happy Ganesh Chathurti ya all! :) Have a great year ahead :)
About 10 years ago, mom decided to revamp the scale of celebration at home. Ever since then we've done something new and creative each year, with silken cloth, little tables, decorative material and flowers. We'd house Him in a lovely house we'd constructed and decorate Him from head to toe till He looked absolutely smashing :) And then on the morning of Chathurti, Amma would get us to be ready by 8 am and huddle everyone into the living room where we'd all pray together.
The unvarying tradition however, was to play the Ganesh Mahamantra cassette for about 2 hours after the morning puja. The house would reverberate with the sounds of "Sukhakarta Dukhaharta" and "Gajanana Sri Ganaraya" in Lata Mageshkar's voice, and my mother would go about her chores in a state of absolute bliss.
Of course, the geek that I was, I'd crib endlessly about how i couldn't study in peace with all the noise. (God, how spoilt WAS I!?!). Mom normally loses her arguments to me in the spirit of keeping peace, this was the one thing she'd never back down on (More power to her, yeah!:D )
And today as i live hundreds of miles away from home, on Vinayakar Chathurti, I sorely miss the songs i cribbed about while I lived at home :( Having discovered the internet and online music as I have, however, i was inspired to look for the songs I love on MusicIndiaOnline - and guess what?! I FOUND THEM!! :DDD
They've been playing in a loop for a while now and I could swear, both my mind and my room feel better than they have in months! :) Add to this the fact that I finally wrote out an email I'd wanted to for WAY TOO long but couldn't until I was completely convinced about it myself. I've done it now :) and the rush of happiness and of inner peace is palpable :) Maybe its just a coincidence that its Chathurti today ... maybe not!
Happy Ganesh Chathurti ya all! :) Have a great year ahead :)
3 comments:
I was also missing all the celebrations that used to happen at home on festivals. So even I tried to do a few of those here in bombay. I can't say much about inner peace, but joy.. yes!
I keep hearing these words in my mind - "Ganpati Bappa moryaa!"
(damn, the voice is outside my window, im in bombay yayyy!!)
Hey but u know what i realised a good thing about blogging? Thoughts etc which otherwise just fleet/glance through our minds takes a lot of mind/blog space here and gives them life. So that way those feelings which u otherwise would have missed the depth of, are given a fair chance here:)
Did i lose u?
Lucky: :) I know .. i commented on ur post about this..
Bm: :) When have u ever lost me. Yes that's precisely why i blog .. and now on a daily basis to make sure this train of thoughts dusnt slip away somewhere :)
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