It is that time of the year again.. when we get very agitated, Blood pressure goes up, crowd everywhere.. people shout in the middle of the night.

No, I’m not talking about IPL.

Dandanakka nakka nakka dandanakka – got a clue ?

No, it is not about any new kuthu song..It is not even about any dead body dance..

It is our “Ganesha happy birthday” – Ganesh Chathurthi.. aka Vinayaka Chathurthi.

(blog purely based on Bengaluru experience)

If you google Ganesha – you will get more than 1 million answer on the origin of Ganesha and how he got elephant head.

The number of answers you get is more than the hits you will get for current world’s biggest question – “why kattappa killed bahubali?”

That is simply because, after Dosa and SAP, Ganesha is the most customized object in the Milky-way galaxy.

32 officially, how many in real world ? – Ganesha himself might not know..

That doesn’t justify you can do a dabba’kuthu song in the middle of the night, disturbing kids and oldies.

During Diwali, there is a rule for not bursting ‘sound’ crackers after 9 pm or before 5 am etc., but this one doesn’t seem to have any restriction. Even if so, there is not even an announcement in atleast FM channels about it..

The whole concept of dancing and singing seems to be inspired by the north Indian way of celebration, but totally overdone - needlessly needled.  Over there, it is a part of life style, the entire community joins in it and has fun.  That doesn't mean it can be forced on other states - come on, it's not Hindi language LOL.!  So, if someone likes the Tomatina festival, then what ? the entire KR market turns into Bunol ?

At least in Bangalore, I don’t see even 1% of sincere religious belief in celebrating Ganesha Chaturthi. – This is just a tool to collect money, buy imported liquor, have fun.

It’s quite appalling to see the youth of today drink and dance in the road, under police protection, for what appears to be a wastage of resources (time, energy and money).

So, unfortunately ,

Where there is god – There is also nuisance.

Latest model : Bahubali Ganesha

And then, the next side effect -  'click & drag' Ganesha all over the street. This again is based on ancient concept of gods taken in Chariot on auspicious occasions and devotees seek blessing on its way. But in Bangalore, there are atleast 10,000 such chariots that are dragged in busy roads, in peak hours.

Every small temple that was built by a wine shop owner 2 days back, want to have a big Ganesha and do Pooja in public in middle of road under police protection.

If there is a cricket match happening in Chinnaswamy stadium, there are maps and special one-ways published in newspapers. Why cant similar planning be done , atleast on known-busy roads ?

And one cant even take a short cut through gully roads. Because 5 out of 10 gully roads are blocked because that “street association” has a Ganesha installed in the middle of the road.

I quite like the idea of a street association that reports to an area association, but sadly it is used only in activities that block the street – Not even a fire engine can go through.

So,

Where there is god – there is traffic.

And last part – the climax of Ganesha (festival) :  This actually seems like anti-climax. 

During Dussera, a giant effigy of Ravana is made, and in the end, it is shot and burnt.

During Ganesha Chaturthi, a giant idol of Ganesha is made, and in the end, it is dissolved/immersed in water.

One is killed by fire and the other by water ??

This year – BBMP has setup 136 mobile water tanks to immerse idols (spending lakhs of rupees) – but these were not advertised widely – even to the extent of covering Gokul Macheri topic or Indirani Mukherjee case.

Even though Government has insisted on SEZ Ganesha (some social eco-friendly ZZZZ) still all kind of cheap Ganesha’s are made every year. And still they are being dissolved in the beautiful lakes in Bangalore.

Such a pity that half of the lakes were lost to apartment construction, and now the rest for such funny reasons.

Where there is god – there is also pollution.

If you are a religious person and you are scolding me while you were reading the above – fine, but ask yourself against these above three topics – do you really want a Ganesha Chathurthi ( or any similar festival) which results in such chaos, disturbing the senior citizen & children, wasting money, time and energy ?

My view is not to ban the festival as such, but to abolish all the drama surrounded by it to have a peaceful life.

Disclaimer: As I said earlier, this blog applies for Bangalore city where I’m seeing these myself during last 3-4 days and in the previous years as well. Though I lived in Chennai earlier, I haven’t seen such outrageous things , may be because we were staying in the outskirts of the city, thankfully!