Pandigai Naal...festival Day...normal Day

Gauri03 · Sep 19, 2018

If this sounds hackneyed it's not my fault. It's the price one pays for a tardy feedback. All the apropos adjectives have been used and repeated ad infinitum, and quite rightfully so. : ) A lovely, touching recollection! Your feelings are palpable in every word. A write-up straight from the heart.

My children have had a fair amount of exposure to Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations thanks to grandparents sharing every moment over video chat and relatives sending pictures every step of the way, from bringing the idol home, the decorations and daily artis, up until the visarjan. Our own celebrations are muted in comparison but meaningful enough to drive the message home. I do want to take my kids to India during this time in future to show them the grand Ganesh mandals with their bright lights and electric atmosphere, the thronging crowds, the lezim dancers and the air reverberating with thousands of voices collectively singing sukhkarta dukhharta. Experiencing it once is enough to stir the soul.

I do agree with the more optimistic points of view. Our traditions have survived this long because we have allowed them to breath and evolve. Our children will add their own flavor and keep them going. We all know you can take the Indian out of India but you can't take India out of the Indian. Thanks to a small group of enthusiastic friends, I have attended more Holi galas and Satyanarayan pujas here than I did in India. After attending innumerable Thanksgiving and Christmas parties I decided to start hosting an annual Diwali dinner, complete with the puja, traditional sweets and snacks, dress and decor, the whole nine yards. This will be the fourth year and my friends and colleagues have already started asking me about it. My kids get caught up in the excitement of planning and preparation and for a short while I feel like I am reliving a little bit of my own childhood. My kids now know that just like Christmas and Thanksgiving this is our big celebration of the year and they have embraced it proudly and wholeheartedly. The best I can do is give them happy memories and hope that someday, when they have homes and families of their own, they might be inspired enough to carry on the tradition!

Thyagarajan · Sep 19, 2018

Gauri03 said: ↑

If this sounds hackneyed it's not my fault. It's the price one pays for a tardy feedback. All the apropos adjectives have been used and repeated ad infinitum, and quite rightfully so. : ) A lovely, touching recollection! Your feelings are palpable in every word. A write-up straight from the heart.

My children have had a fair amount of exposure to Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations thanks to grandparents sharing every moment over video chat and relatives sending pictures every step of the way, from bringing the idol home, the decorations and daily artis, up until the visarjan. Our own celebrations are muted in comparison but meaningful enough to drive the message home. I do want to take my kids to India during this time in future to show them the grand Ganesh mandals with their bright lights and electric atmosphere, the thronging crowds, the lezim dancers and the air reverberating with thousands of voices collectively singing sukhkarta dukhharta. Experiencing it once is enough to stir the soul.

I do agree with the more optimistic points of view. Our traditions have survived this long because we have allowed them to breath and evolve. Our children will add their own flavor and keep them going. We all know you can take the Indian out of India but you can't take India out of the Indian. Thanks to a small group of enthusiastic friends, I have attended more Holi galas and Satyanarayan pujas here than I did in India. After attending innumerable Thanksgiving and Christmas parties I decided to start hosting an annual Diwali dinner, complete with the puja, traditional sweets and snacks, dress and decor, the whole nine yards. This will be the fourth year and my friends and colleagues have already started asking me about it. My kids get caught up in the excitement of planning and preparation and for a short while I feel like I am reliving a little bit of my own childhood. My kids now know that just like Christmas and Thanksgiving this is our big celebration of the year and they have embraced it proudly and wholeheartedly. The best I can do is give them happy memories and hope that someday, when they have homes and families of their own, they might be inspired enough to carry on the tradition!
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Quite a FB at that.
2. You can take Indian from India but not India from an Indian. You are proud Indian.
3. The choice of words DESCRIBES well the pangs of away from the celebration of this festival in India. Read and read again.
Thank you madam sister.
Regards.
God Bless Us All. Vandhehum Gana nayakam.

Viswamitra · Sep 19, 2018

@peartree,

There is a benefit of being tardy in responding to this wonderful post as I get to read all the responses as well. Ganesh Chathurthi brings the beautiful memories of childhood as I used to learn how to make the flat dough to keep the sweet Poornam in the middle from my mother with a sharp nose after wrapping the sweet Poornam. When I sat down with my MIL to do it to help my wife this week, it brought those memories back. Like @kkrish mentioned, selecting and buying the clay Ganesh is a challenge and I used to accompany my mom to do so in Neyveli Township. It is my responsibility to drop Ganesha in some water source post celebration. We had flower plants around the quarters and it was my job to pluck them when my mother prepared beautiful garlands out of it. I used to wake up to the song "Vinayakane Vinai Theerthavane" from the Temple's amplifier. Neyveli is a town that had a mix of aggressive worshipers and atheists combined.

The father was a great worshiper of Lord Ganesha. He never missed going to the Temple in III Cross Street, Kasturba Nagar, Chennai everyday after his pooja. He died on Ganesh Chathurthi day in 1987 when I was 33 years old. When I was in India last April for my mother's funeral, I met a man who founded this Temple and him recognizing my father after so many years was a great experience for me. Since then, my world changed to perform his rituals first before celebrating Ganesh Chathurthi. As you know, it is difficult to perform the annual rituals early as most priest are busy in the Temple until late afternoon. I perform his ritual around 12:30 p.m. and come back and perform the Ganesh Chathurthi Aaarathi at 2 p.m. That is why I am always late writing up my conversation with the Lord to be posted here.

Viswa

Thyagarajan · Sep 19, 2018

Viswamitra said: ↑

@peartree,

There is a benefit of being tardy in responding to this wonderful post as I get to read all the responses as well. Ganesh Chathurthi brings the beautiful memories of childhood as I used to learn how to make the flat dough to keep the sweet Poornam in the middle from my mother with a sharp nose after wrapping the sweet Poornam. When I sat down with my MIL to do it to help my wife this week, it brought those memories back. Like @kkrish mentioned, selecting and buying the clay Ganesh is a challenge and I used to accompany my mom to do so in Neyveli Township. It is my responsibility to drop Ganesha in some water source post celebration. We had flower plants around the quarters and it was my job to pluck them when my mother prepared beautiful garlands out of it. I used to wake up to the song "Vinayakane Vinai Theerthavane" from the Temple's amplifier. Neyveli is a town that had a mix of aggressive worshipers and atheists combined.

The father was a great worshiper of Lord Ganesha. He never missed going to the Temple in III Cross Street, Kasturba Nagar, Chennai everyday after his pooja. He died on Ganesh Chathurthi day in 1987 when I was 33 years old. When I was in India last April for my mother's funeral, I met a man who founded this Temple and him recognizing my father after so many years was a great experience for me. Since then, my world changed to perform his rituals first before celebrating Ganesh Chathurthi. As you know, it is difficult to perform the annual rituals early as most priest are busy in the Temple until late afternoon. I perform his ritual around 12:30 p.m. and come back and perform the Ganesh Chathurthi Aaarathi at 2 p.m. That is why I am always late writing up my conversation with the Lord to be posted here.

Viswa
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stunningly serious and impressive response .
THANKS AND REGARDS.

peartree · Sep 21, 2018

Thank you @Gauri03 and @Viswamitra sir. And apologies for the tardy response to your response

@Gauri03 Having grandparents around festival season is definitely a plus, at least they get to see the "authentic" way to celebrate something. My big dream is to actually be able to take a year off or something like that and just go park myself in India and just show them everything! Right from the joy of traveling in sleeper class to letting them ride a bus by themselves to being able to wear a school uniform to just general living in India. To have them experience just how different it is. I don't know if it is the longing or what, but I definitely seem to be taking my faith more seriously here in the US than when I was living in India. I guess it is because it was just so freely available back home that I did not feel the need to...!

THe point about making memories for the kids is so pertinent and resonates with me so well. When I think of how we celebrated these festivals, I have nothing but happy and pleasant memories of my childhood in my home. And that is exactly what I want to give my kids, something to look back to, with fondness. As for the religious belief part of it, I don't even know what exactly it is I am wanting to pass on, except that I experience a sense of peace when I utter a prayer or sing a song I learned as a child. I find some comfort if I prostrate at the altar in my home and I find a sense of positivity when I light a lamp in the evening. May be it is this anchor I want my children to have, just a support system or sorts? I don't know...

@Viswamitra sir, sorry to hear about your father's passing, especially on Ganesh Chaturthi. It must be bitter-sweet, I am sure. It is amazing though how these little neighborhood temples were not just places of worship, but also a way to network and socialize, quite like the little parks and playgrounds we have here.

When I think about these festivals/rituals, there is the faith/religious/emotional aspects to it on one side. But I am also amazed by business/economics side of it and just how many people rely on these practices for their livelihood! Right from the man who walks around the market selling all the umbrellas, to the flower vendors who suddenly stock up on the Dhruva Grass, to sculptors who go all out with different kinds of Ganesha to the priest who would come to our house to perform the pooja!

SunPa · Oct 1, 2018

@peartree
Lovely post. How did you know? Did you just enter my head and crawl thru my hippocampus ?

Missed reading it earlier - thank god for the finest post.
Congratulation!