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| Ganesha @ Fiancee's home |
So finally the city organized the
best farewell of the most loved god with an elephant head Ganesha quite
peacefully. Our 11 days guest finally left our homes. We all did our best, we
performed all rituals well and in our case, we protected him the best. For me,
this festival becomes very important for myself as my fiancée sponsored two
charming idols of Ganesha at her home and made me a part of this festival. From
bringing him to home and immersing him into the river, I stayed there and
enjoyed the festival.
There were too many holidays
during this festival so I enjoyed a lot. I visited different places in hometown
while in Mumbai, I spent an entire night before immersion takes place. First
one was the Lalbaug Cha Raja, the king of Mumbai where millions of devotees
come to take blessing from him. I feel myself luckier to get “Mukhdarshan” in
just an hour. It was a quite peaceful atmosphere as I selected the fifth day of
the festival (usually the Gauri Ganesha are immersed) so there was no crowd.
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| A visit to Lal Baug Cha Raja |
But
recently the controversy is created when female police brutally beat a 21 year
old Nandini Goswami when she asked to go from VIP passage. This is common thing
at the venue. Couple of years ago, I was too survived from police’s attack. But
this incident is recorded and inquiry ordered by CM Fadnavis. Though the girl
was wearing shorts, I have heard that she was badly injured near thighs. Let’s
hope she gets justice.
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| Fort Cha Ichchapurti Ganesha. Year- 70 |
The most memorable night I spent
here in Mumbai was the night when I visited Fort Cha Ichhapurti Ganesha. It
took even more time to reach him than Lalbaug cha Raja. I reached the venue at
1 am in the night and I came out from Pandal at 2:30 am. There was huge crowd
and devotees came from different places. This venue became more famous after
coming into the news suddenly because of their decorations. They have created
replicas of Ganesha situated in different countries of the world. Average 40 people
from abroad visited this Ichchapurti Raja in order to fulfill their wishes everyday.
Ichhapurti Raja is famous for fulfilling wishes. Even I wished him to get my
love couple of years ago and he gave me the best person in my life. So my faith
for him is tremendous. One more factor I visit this place because my friend
is a member of this organization. He is too close to me & I feel too happy
to meet him always. Later I went to Khetwadi but seeking huge crowd, I decided
to return Fort. At 3 am, I went to Marine Drive and waited. I found amazing crowd
at Marine Drive too. There was not even a place to sit on a promenade. There
were young boys and girls having fun in a pleasant night and there were so much
police patrolling in order to handle situations. But it was a memorable night,
I took 5:45 AM Gujarat Express and returned home.
The second day I returned my
hometown and we went out to take blessing from an elephant head lord
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| Little Ganesha riding a bike |
along with
my girlfriend. We found very huge idols of Ganesha in different localities. As
she never visited before, she found them too impressive. The most beautiful
idol we found in Vegetable Market where a little Ganesha was seen riding a bike.
We both were quite happy to see him. Mannat Na Raja is also famous for his
ability to fulfill wishes. They hold different program each night like comedy,
satsang, music and Gujarati dairo. They organize fun fair during 11 days and so
children, too enjoy festival.
On 11th day, we
finally bid a farewell. As we took him to our local river around 2 pm noon and
immersed both idols, few family members also arrived for immersion. I was away
from Mumbai but I saw the pictures of emotional devotees immersing their
beloved god taking into their own hands and immersing into the sea. He finally
left us with a hope to come back next year so that we can live happily and we
could share love and respect. But as soon as the day of immersion ended, I got
very disturbing video clip of some small and huge Ganesha idols are being
thrown from the edge of the bridge from a truck. They are throwing the idols
carelessly in a river. No one has been able to find out the place what it is.
The images are too blurred that you can neither recognize the number plates of
trucks nor identify the identity of police checking symbol. But it definitely raises
a question whether these idols should be treated in such way when we love him
& worship him from bottom of our hearts for 11 constant days? On one side,
we allow Muslims to take ‘Namaz’ in Ganesh Pandal due to shortage of space and
provide best example of unity and love while other side, we are making fun of
our own religion by treating idols in such manner.
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| A girl kisses an idol before immersing into the water. Share by TOI |
“Will he be happy after
immersion?”
