Luis Mubarak Janmadhin ho, Part II

Luis Mubarak Janmadhin ho!

The Immersion of Lord Ganesh

It's been quite a tight week. I should have posted this article last week Tuesday, 25th September. That was the day that thousands of idols of Lord Ganesh were immersed in various parts of Maharashtra. I took a walk towards Juhu Beach at 6 p.m. and was able to catch some pics and clips of farewell ceremony. The clip is illustrative enough: it says how many people there were and what they were doing! Returning to my apartment on SV Road at 7:15 p.m. I (and all the traffic!) was temporarily halted as a giant idol of the god was being transported in a trailer from Santa Cruz Market to the Juhu.

[PGD] in brackets

Open brackets.

I step out of Little India and step into the recent past. PGD has an all too familiar sound for those of us who know Strathmore School in Nairobi, Kenya. It stands for Prize Giving Day, and today 29th September, happens to be PGD.

It's next to impossible to omit from my memory the PGDs I have attended as a student, those as a past student, and in the last 8 or so years, the PGDs I took part in as a teacher at "Strath" (as we familiarly call it).

PGD is in a sense a day for parents, teachers and students. It's a day for parents to proudly see their children assembled before them and staging an extravaganza of talent in the form of skits, plays, rhymes. It's a day for the teachers to reflect on the 9 month's worth of work – “Teaching is worth it!” I many-a-time told myself. It's a day for the students to don their navy blue blazers and bask in the glory of Nairobi's sun as their names are read out to collect prizes for participation in class, academic merit, sporting excellence, extra-curricular activities like The Scroll Magazine and Scroll Digital ...

Strath is a place where parents, teachers and students integrate in quite a unique way. Perhaps it’s because the inspirational spirit of the School came from St Josemaria Escriva. This spirit has placed the School in a class of its own.

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[Pics: The parents always have a good laugh as they encourage the little ones to put the boxes in the right place - the kids learn to work in teams from the moment they join the School. The "blue blazers" in the last pic made up the editorial team of the School Magazine that year marketed as Scroll 205]
Kd

Mikhail Sideways

Mikhail Sideways is not his name - it's just that when I dubbed the clip I made the ever so small mistake of not holding the camera the other way. If Quick Time Player were a little more flexible, I would have been able to give a flip to the image. There's always a next posting I guess.

Mikhail Carvalho is a buddy of mine who I met when I came to India early in January. Contrary to what he says in the clip, he is teaching me some classical guitar. What you hear in the clip is God-given talent - he didn't attend classes to get to the level that he is at. From an early age he liked the guitar and started reading music on his own. He's just recently started going to tuitions because in this art there's nothing better than learning from the hands of one who really knows.

If music is one of the talents that God gave you, spend a little time everyday -15 to 30 minutes- in practising. There are now thousands of sources on the internet that can introduce you to the "ABC of Music" - you'll be amazed at how far you can go on your own. And, if you're lucky, you may bump into a "Mikhail Sideways"!
Kd

Ganpati ends in the building

After 5 days of poojas, dance and incense, the idol was finally escorted out of our building. I've included a short clip that was shot rather hastily from the balcony of my flat; next year I will try to do a better job!
Actually, it was not the only idol to leave its place; almost 8,000 idols were yesterday immersed in different locations of Mumbai. It was farewell to Ganesh till next September 15. In Mumbai major roads -24 of them- were shut for 6 hours, starting 12 noon as processions of thousands of people accompanied the Ganesh idols to their immersion points. I understand that for the next two days, the roads will be shut for the same duration as more idols are taken for immersion.
Kd

Festival of Ganesh Chaturthi

Mumbai is always alive, but I am told that in the 2nd week of September, there's more life than usual. On the 15th of this month, Ganesha comes home to bless his devotees in the the popular 10-day Festival of Ganesha Chaturthi.
In the building where I live, Friday evening was a racket as someone could be heard hammering away in the hall. Well past 10 p.m., I went down to find out what was happening. The manager of the building explained to me that the they were putting up a stage for Lord Ganesh. The next day, I saw the hall looking like never before: clean floors, I mean really clean! The sides of the hall were decked with lights. Later in the evening, the watchman called me to see the pooja for Ganesh Chaturthi. I couldn't stay for long, but I was able to capture a picture.
After 10 days, the Festival will come to an end and all the Ganesh idols will go in procession to the accompaniment of music and dance for immersion in the sea or a nearby lake or river.
Kd