Bringing Home Ganesha

One more Ganesh Chathurthi has come and gone. My earliest recollections of Ganesh puja was when I was about 8-10 years. Awoken by 5:30 a.m we used to accompany dad to mwm market to bring home our very own Ganesha idol. It used to be a ritual by itself with me & my sister enjoying every minute of it.

Since Malleswaram market used to be a stone's throw away my Appa used to make us take a brisk walk and we used to prance behind him in our pattu pavadai's holding the brass thattu (plate) in which  will bring home our coveted idol. I recollect vividly how the colorful marketplace with glittering idols, the paper crowns swishing in the cool morning breeze and the smell of fresh roses & jasmine in the air would usher in the festive mood.

My sister & I would always have this major grouse as Appa used to always insist on purchasing a clay idol of Ganesha against the colourful Plaster of Paris (PoP) ones in different sizes and poses. We used to secretly think Appa was stingy and used to try a number of tricks to veer him towards the stalls stacked with the painted idols only to be nonchallantly sidelined by him. Once with all earnestness that a 11 year old could muster, I asked him "Appa, can't we afford a color Ganesha for once?" 

My dad laughed out aloud and said that it was our tradition to buy only clay Ganesh as the coloured models are burnt in a kiln before getting painted and that is unacceptable as a murti while the clay models are deemed to resonate the divine. Possibly it was his simplified explaination of eco-friendliness to us nagging children. Of course, we didn't buy his theory and still longed for the colored ones. The only consolation was that we got to chose the paper crowns and we usually made the seller mad by the time we chose one. Ah, those were the days!

Those were the days when we used to wait impatiently for appa to complete his puja. The aarti used to signal the end of the puja and we used to be in a hurry to place flowers at the Lord's feet and rush to tuck in the goodies on the dining table. Mom in her kancheevaram used to sprightly go about serving us large helpings of payasam & modakams and we used to fight to see who had the maximum share.

This year I drove my kiddo to the market and I was delighted to see the same sparkle in his eyes seeing the buzzing market. He looked with awe at the colorful idols and clapped his little hands on seeing the different hues of strung flowers adorning the stalls.

We bought the traditional clay Ganesha while his little fingers tried to reach out at a painted idol kept nearby.