tracking the great ganapati

ganapati on the beach
Mon, 12 Sep 2005

Namaskaram,

Yes!!! Dancing Dancing Dancing! Yesterday I had my first class with Shyamala, I breathe a huge sigh of relief here, like sailing into the pristine harbor after far too long at sea. We dove right into a huge dance that I've been chiseling away at for a couple of years now, Daneke Varnam, a 40-minute (extremely complex) item that involves a third person plea made by a maid to Lord Siva. She poetically expounds, in every conceivable way, that her mistress is the perfect 'match' for Lord Siva. He is of course (!) completely un-phased by all of this and has many well thought out reasons as to why he need not take interest in the lovely mistress...I'd tell you where the story ends.... if I knew... I've not learned that part yet, so perhaps it will be a cliffhanger for the time being.

baking day

Since the first night we arrived I've been asking (far too many) questions about this Ganapati (Ganesha/elephant-headed god) Festival. Everyone was giving different, if not entirely contradictory information about when, how and why the main festivities occur. Yesterday I came to realize that much of the confusion was due to the government declaring that the tossing of mud murtis (statues) into the ocean is creating an ecological hazard...not knowing how much truth there is in this statement, I remain the ever oblivious outsider. BUT! After much debate we finally tracked down the (government approved) Ganapati by the Sea (yes, that is the title of this adventure) and oh - was it ever cooool! The huge murti was paraded down the road, the flowers were-a-fly’ in and the priests were-a-chant’ in. When everyone finally made it through the crowd of political protesters and the veritable army of Indian police that were present to do I don't know what (sense the disdain?) then Ganapati was dragged across the beach and floated out to sea...it was just lovely. BUT! It gets better--for all you arty-photographer types--picture the beach strewn with the hundreds of small mud Ganapatis (and flowers and shells of course) that had been offered into the tide during the previous week. There is something so primal about tossing one's prayers into the waves and having them wash up, maybe eons later, on some unknown shore, more beautiful than ever.

Oh! So there I was, thinking that we were finished with the whole festival thing and it turns out that next Thursday is Onam... yet another festival. This one is somewhat like a New Years celebration and is punctuated by gala food preparations, purchasing of new saris and the creation of mind-bendingly elaborate kolam decorations made with flowers instead of rice/chalk. I'm utterly delighted by this news as kolam has always had the magical power of dissolving me into happiness:

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Showing up - letting go - and crossing the ocean of eternity!