Clay In Water (Ganesh Visarjan 2012)

I started my evening by visiting the sarvajanik (community) mandap near my building. Every year they have small shows on mythological themes like fables of Shirdi Sai Baba or the Mahabharatha with electronic puppets and at the end the large Ganesha idol is unveiled.

This year's theme was more contemporary and focussed on female infanticide, narrated by Maratha freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Some of the scenes has too much shock affect, but I guess that's how you make a strong point these days. I'm not sure if I would like to see dead baby puppet lying in a dustbin again. 

7th day is the day of immersion for most of the idols in my area. And this year  the noise levels, pomp and fuss around seemed to be the highest. 

Crackers were burst, DJ music was at its loudest possible with music with an eclectic range of remixed old songs, marathi music, emraan hashmi movie sound tracks, the mandatory shivsena song (with flags flying high - they get a banner too) By this time Ganesha with his faithful mouse would be itching to jump into the Arabian Sea immediately.

In my apartment, two hand carts with drummers and loads of dancing devotees took the idol to the truck. Not a fan of loud music and dancing on the streets, I spent the time cooped at home, watching some good cricket instead.

Sitting on the top of the truck after many years with the new kids of the block was fun. But not cool when the truck hits a speed bump or the driver hits the brake suddenly. I shifted to the seat next to the driver which was more relaxed and could view the idols on the road clearly and take some pictures too. We slowly trudged towards Juhu beach, my friends on the top of the truck making noise, outshouting other trucks, disturbing guys standing to pee on the walls and cheering drunk fellows on the bridge - tying to be a big nuisance, knowing that the cops on the street won't mind it tonight.

We reached Juhu passing through many beautifully lit streets and a lot of banners sponsored by myriad political parties across India - from UP (Samajwadi)to TN (AIADMK) all political heavy weights getting their mugshots on the banners. You have to search hard to spot Ganesha on the banner.

This beautiful idol called dasabhuja (ten hands) is now in vogue. Agneepath murti (as it is called) was brought in with Agneepath music by hrithik roshans and priyanka chopras, with loud un-godly music. 

Lifting the idol from the truck would have been a challenge. I don't know as I was happily taking pictures. This six foot idol was on a plank which was carried by two huge poles to share the weight among eight guys and still it was quite heavy. I had not planned to get into the water and when I got a tap in my shoulder asking for help as they needed more big boys, I got in without thinking much. Over chants of *Ganpati Bappa Moriya* the form of the idol was immersed in the water to take it back to the more eternal formless shape.It is a little sad to see the idol slowly getting immersed in the water. We were deep in the ocean and so were sure that this idol would not be washed back to the shore in pieces - which is even more tragic to see.

The gods and demons once worked together and churned the ocean to create both poison and nectar. Tonight as I got into the cold water carrying Ganesha over my shoulder to merge in probably the same ocean, I was thankful to have lived to experience this moment.