Ganesh Festival - The inconvenient truth.

Vinayak Chaturthi is a festival that excites the entire nation. It brings joy and happiness and decorates the entire country in festive colors. Lord Ganesha stays in your home for a few days and takes away with him, all the obstacles for the rest of the year. This is what Vinayak Chaturthi is supposed to mean to most of us. But then, there are these few things which bother me. In the name of Lord Ganesha, a few things happen which aren't supposed to.

1. Ganesh Pandals: I am not against Ganesh Pandals. But then, they cause serious traffic jams. In a city like Hyderabad, every hundred meters there is a Ganesh Pandal. And why do they have different pandals installed when all of them live in the same colony or society? I think there should be ONE PANDAL for ONE COLONY. Nothing more. It helps in controlling traffic congestion on the day of the immersion and decreases sound pollution. Also, it increases communal harmony. In one colony if there are four different groups, what kind of unity are we talking about? 

2. Youngsters: It is good to see young people managing the whole process of fetching the idol from Dhoolpet and then managing the pandal and then, the immersion. But, I have been a part of these groups too and I know exactly what happens in these pandals and around them - rivalry, ego clashes, fights, smoking,  eating Gutkha, abusive language, eve-teasing and so on. While all of them may not be like that, but most are. 

3. Chanda: I abhor the way funds for these celebrations are collected. The chanda-collectors (extortionists) set their own standards and don't compromise at all. In an average middle-class locality, each household has to give chanda three to four 'Youth associations' which comprise of drunkards, jobless, uneducated or college drop outs who have had a fight with someone or the other in the last ten days at any point of time. I believe that using 'religion' and 'God' is the easiest way to extract money from people. And it has been so for a long long time now. Chilkur Balaji Temple is the only GREAT exception where there is NO HUNDI at all. That temple re-instills the belief in me that God exists and he doesn't want money. 

4. Misuse of funds: Why the hell does one need to have an 'Orchestra' or a 'Dance' programme at the Ganesh pandal? Are they looking at appeasing him? What are they trying to do? Fat and ugly singers with harsh voices come and sing songs which have nothing to do with Lord Ganesha. Tum to Thehre Pardesi and those obligatory songs from Ashiqui are sung along with the latest Telugu so-called love songs are sung. Obscene songs are played and TV reality show reject dancers from the distant neighborhood are called to perform. Mimicry artists with little or no talent come and imitate Amitabh Bachchan, Dr. YS Rajasekhar Reddy, Chandrababu Naidu and Chiranjeevi. And they all charges money for that. I have no idea what this is turning out to be in the near future. I only hope they don't set up tables in front of the pandal like they do at a dance-bar. 

5. Immersion: 90% of the people in the immersion procession are drunk. Yes they are. Leading the procession is a group of young and old drunk people dancing in the most horrendous way possible with frequent onrushes of the Nagin dance. When they get tired, they sneak out into the dark and smoke a cigarette, swig another peg and they are back again. Some of the drunk men who suddenly become traffic constables and direct the traffic with excessive and unnecessary usage of body language are fun to watch. The song which Benazir Bhutto used at the launch of her party is played at loud volume either on a mobile outdoor high wattage audio system or is played on a piano by a man sitting in a single seater car like cart which resembles the ones used at a Golf course with two people pushing it. Also, in Hyderabad, they immerse the idols in the already polluted Tank Bund and it takes over two weeks for all the waste to get cleared off the surface of the lake. 

These are just a few things I could think of. There are no answers to these questions as yet. As a society, we have a lot that is left to be done as far as civic awareness and mutually convenient coexistence is concerned. And that, is the inconvenient truth. 

Anyway, Wish all of you a very Happy Vinayak Chaturthi. 

P.S.: I am as much a devotee of Lord Ganesha as all of you are. But certain things I feel aren't just right about the way this festival is celebrated outside of our homes. 

- Deepak Karamungikar
My book, 'Love at first sight' can be purchased here.