sep 15 2007 - ganesha 101

I was planning to head out of town or go hiking on Sat. On Friday, the girls at work talked of Ganesha pooja on Sat. I celebrate festivals when I can to relive the warm, nostalgic memories of sweets, new clothes, markets full of bustle, vendors selling paper umbrellas for ganesha, diyas for diwali, and the happiness that was. The missing element in the US is the crowd and the get-together spirit. My pet peeve is that it's not a holiday.

Regardless, I set out to make mothakas - salt and sweet. After my morning run, I used MIL's recipe to stir up the dough. We told Srinidhi that Ganesha was visiting us today. Bala downloaded some pictures from the net and asked her to color them. The door bell rang. The rescue rooters had sent a plumber to check our bath tap. Srinidhi yells "mama, Ganesha is here." Looks at the tall white plumber and asks "is he Ganesha".

We sang while we waited for the mothakas to cook. I downloaded mudhakaratha modhakam from the web and sang it a couple of times (cacophony of course!). Bala sang some unknown number and Sri sang Ganesha charanam. She enjoyed tapping the bells and playing music while we sang. At least it sated our religious spirit.

The mothakas came out in a congealed mess. There's still some left-over batter. In the evening, we took Sri to a bouncer party in Sunnyvale and chanced to visit the temple. Hundreds of desis vying to get in, stood in a serpentine line so they could get a close dharshan of the 20 foot ganesha...or maybe it was the prasad. I didn't get it - I even saw pregnant women. Is it really a spiritual experience?

We launched into this discussion on what Indian culture are we trying to pass on? Whatever works for you - different strokes for diff folks. For me it is whenever there's time and mood.