Festival season in Hyderabad (part 1) - Ganesh Chathurthi

It is the festival season in India and Hyderabad has its own unique way of celebrating it. You see, Hyderabad is a melting pot of South Indian, North Indian and Deccani Islamic cultures and it is very much apparent during this season. In the deep south, Vinayakar Chathurthi gets done in a day. In Hyderabad, like I suspect in many parts of the north, it is a fortnight long affair. Thousands of gigantic colorful Ganeshas get made and taken to water bodies in processions and get dunked cermeniously. As if we didn't have enough threats to our water resources already. At this rate, it is only a matter of time before Hussain Sagar will become Ganesh Sagar.

Anyway, this year I decided to set such pontifications aside and get into the spirit of it. The day of the Chathurthi, I went to my neighborhood Ganesha idol outlet and got a tiny beautiful white Ganesha with purple decorative powder for Rs. 50. The road-side "store" was manned (if you could use the word in this case) by a young man no more than 8 who was winding down his business and seemed a little impatient with me and wanted to get home if indeed he had one.

Then I went to the nearby market to get materials for the puja - a rare venture outside my humdrum routine. The flower cart guy insisted on giving me exact change back. I learnt that even a farmers market in India (Raithu bazaar) sells Washington apples at mind-boggling prices while the local produce was far cheaper. My daughter (who I firmly believe has a Pacific Northwest soul inside an Indian body) will have nothing less than Washington apples and thanks to her, Ganesha got Washington Red Delicious that day.

The nimarjan (immersion day) itself happens 10 days later and schools and many businesses close down since the city grinds to a halt in the evening with all the processions underway. This year, the nimarjan day unfortunately coincided with the day the news of YSR's tragic death broke out and I hear was a very muted affair. We stayed home as we were worried about repercussions from the event in the city. Last year, we had driven past Hussain Sagar as the immersions were happening - through truck-mounted cranes organized by the government itself.

So that is the Ganesh Chathurthi story; onto Ramzaan next.