craziness. chaos. calcutta.

in keeping with my whirlwind traveling style, i headed straight from ahmedabad to calcutta, mid-navratri. in fewer than two hours i had essentially traversed the country from west to east. (by plane, obviously, though i'll bet that's an epic train trip). it occurred to me at some point that morning that i hadn't really made any arrangements at all for this city i was suddenly in. i had a momentary rush of panic, which quickly subsided into dead-to-the-world sleep on the flight.

luckily, things worked out. as they have tended to for me here. i admit this is principally due to the friendly nature of the people here and the few connections i've managed to forge. i luckily found a place to stay that happened to be in the thick of all the activity, way down south near some of the bigger pandals. this was convenient in some ways (walking to pandals) but not in others (traffiiiic). the place itself.. not exactly the ritz but the price was right and it had rooms available. plus, why bring your own sheets if you never get to use them, right?

chai in little clay cups. i love it!

that night i wandered around dazed, confused by all the commotion happening around me and disoriented in this giant new city i found myself in. i wandered in and out of some nearby pandals which, by the way, are structures built to house the deities for the days of worship and veneration. apparently the last three nights of the nine are the biggest here, with elaborate light shows and loud pujas during the night. as the light began to fade i could see i had not been misinformed - the giant light displays (picture giant lite-brites) of faces and flowers lit up the alleys and the crowds got even heavier. as for myself, i popped into a few sari shops (got a beautiful silk one on sale!) and retired to my hotel room with a chicken roll and some sweets. it was a long day, alright?

the next day began the start of my whirlwind pandal-tour in earnest. i was fortunate enough to have a wonderful guide in my friend's brother souvik. he and his friends guided us all over the city, sometimes walking, sometimes jamming ourselves into rickshaws or cabs. and it was hot. i can't remember ever being so thirsty (although i'm sure i have been.. italy in july, rajasthan in may..) - just constantly thinking about when i could get water next and how cold it would be. but i digress.

the pandals! also known as pujas. they. are. humungous. if i thought the ganpati pandals in mumbai were elaborate, these were just over the top insanity. in mumbai, the pandals may have had rather decorated interiors in the immediate area surrounding the deity. but the exteriors themselves were largely just tarps or perhaps even just an opening for a door. not so in calcutta. the exteriors were as enormous as they were elaborate - towering structures that you had to remind yourself were, indeed, just temporary. at times it felt a little like being at disneyworld. all these 'fake' environments created. like walking around epcot. but instead of 'italy' and 'japan' you encountered different types of durgas. very surreal.

over the years the pandals have grown more elaborate - thanks in part to the competitions and prizes that are now awarded - and have developed themes that change from year to year. the themes seemed to range from materials (straw, glass, rope, clay - one made entirely out of aluminum kitchenware) to larger messages. (one of the biggest ones' was 'global warming' - i thought it best not to point out how many trees and bamboo shoots had been sacrificed to get that particular message across). here are just a sampling of the variety we saw:

durga visible through the straw and bamboo

all ceramic durga, quite stylized i must say

typical yellow maa durga in her aluminum foil surroundings

a very trippy prismatic effect at the 'glass puja'

this is just a smattering of the incredible variety of pandals that we saw throughout the city. and of course we only scratched the surface here. there are hundreds (thousands?) of these throughout the city and even three full days was not enough to cover it. it was completely exhausting but incredible to witness.

ganpati (part 2: the deities)

while the first day was busy with the bustle of the home puja, the next few days out and about were full of their own kind of craziness (and this is most decidedly not the craziest part of this festival, mind you).

i was eager to get out and see these ganpatis that were supposed to be lining the streets. i joined a friend and we wandered through the streets, annoyed by the vague advice we were given, when asked where to look: 'they're everywhere'. well it turns out this advice was spot on. they are indeed everywhere. we didn't get more than 50 meters past the train station (ville parle, in case you're keeping track) when we approached our first ganpati, housed in a tent of tarps, as they usually seem to be. we approached each one, removed our shoes, folded our hands respectfully, gave some coins as offerings, (my friend paused as i took the requisite picture(s), and we received prasad on our way out - usually nuts and little sugared balls, although the fancier places gave out modak. within the first half hour we must have seen at least half a dozen ganpatis, which is pretty good since my friend was told one should aim to see about seven (though i later heard nine as well). we must have at least doubled that by the end of our two-hour excursion.

the next day i had a similar encounter in a different part of town (farther south, near grant road) with a different friend. she must have gotten the inside scoop, because we saw some fantastic specimens - and some of the bigger ones i've seen, or even heard about.

the murti themselves are so varied i'm sure i won't be able to do them justice, so i'll let these pictures do the talking for me..

one of the first we saw.. i was interested in the environment they had created (and the changing lights were a nice touch as well.)

while most have that typically white/shiny appearance (which incidentally is generally plaster of paris) there was some nice variety. i appreciated the differences in color and shape this one used.

why is this ganesh so shiny? it's covered in buttons! over 80,000 of them. in past years the same idol has been made using chocolate, garam masala (spices), dried fruit, and stationery. resourceful indeed!

note the smaller deity image, which typically is placed before the main image. this is so that devotees can come up to take darshan and give offerings. also of interest - while most of the ganpatis we saw were in tents, some (like the ones in this village we wandered into) are simply placed in alleyways.

..and then others are housed in incredibly elaborate pandals like this one. we spent quite a while marveling and taking pictures of this fantastic setting. it's so nice that taking pictures is allowed (and that people do it so widely.. making me feel slightly less awkward about the process) though at this particular one the pandit was getting a little annoyed - too much clicking not enough darshan.

  

i thought this one deserved another shot, magnificent as it was. you don't quite get a sense of the size here, but it's about 14 feet tall. it's one of the 'big 5' ganpatis in mumbai. the biggest of these can draw lines that take hours, literally, (the average wait is about five) to reach the deity. if this sounds crazy, now imagine these same 10-20 foot deities being carried on canopies and paraded through streets teeming with masses of people. that's what's going to happen on the 10th day.

these few shots just scratch the surface - i must have seen over 25 ganpatis (well over the quota, whew) and that was only covering two very small areas. just thinking about the number there must be in this city is mind-boggling.

ganpati bappa morya (part 1)

As I've been told by nearly everyone I've met, I've managed to come to Mumbai at exactly the right time. First there was Janmashtani (aka Dahi Handi), the celebration of Krishna's birth, next was Eid-al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, which was quickly followed by the kickoff of Ganesh Chathurthi. The latter, widely called Ganpati here, is a 10-day festival that begins on the birthday of Ganesh, the beloved elephant-headed deity. The festival is incredibly big in the West, and particularly zealously celebrated in Pune and Mumbai.

rangoli and pookalam

I don't think I could have asked for a better crash course in the festival than I've had these past few days. Day one began bright and early, catching a train to meet my professor at his home across town. I arrived to a beautiful home that was busy with activity. Your first impression of the place was 'there are a lot of deities.' Then your second impression was 'there are a lot of trophies.' My advisor later pointed out his cases and cases of trophies, awarded for folk art performances (I imagine) - his daughter is a classical dancer as well. As I sat awkwardly on the couch, I felt nervous.. what in the world was I going to do here all day. But Dr. Khandge quickly assuaged my fears. 'Make yourself at home, relax. [and the compulsory:] Would you like some tea?' I chatted with his daughter and son, who was skyping in from Virginia, and watched as everyone put the finishing touches on their pandal (a platform to house the deity).

preparatory offerings

I sheepishly asked whether I could take pictures - 'of course!' was the answer. That was why I was there, after all. I should have known the time would pass quickly if I could take pictures. I can easily while away hours taking pictures (much to the chagrin of people I'm with). Just then Dr. Khandge pointed me toward the rangoli, which the women were creating outside the doorway. The pookalam (design made of flowers) was already already in place. When I got outside the women were beginning to fill in the outline of the rangoli with the colored powder. It was mesmerizing to watch.. and quite beautiful once finished.

clapping and chanting mantras are integral to the puja

receiving darshan and making offerings

The rest of the morning was filled with busying for the arrival of guests who included a young cousin named Rishika, who, luckily for me, took an immediate liking to me and, even luckier, spoke English. She spent the better part of the morning asking me if I knew Justin Bieber ('personally??') and trying to teach me Marathi (sigh, another language). She also served as my occasional interpreter, explaining that everyone was discussing.  The morning went quickly and before I knew it guests had arrived and the puja (prayer ceremony) had begun. I imagine these can get repetitive even if you understand the language, but for me it was a succession of chanting, ringing bells, presenting offerings (see pic) and clapping. the deity is then ritualistically placed in the pandal, where everyone gets a chance to receive darshan (gaze of the deity) and receive blessings. After doing so the appointed pujari offers prasad (blessings in the form of food) to the devotees. Once the deity (or murti) is in place he is adorned with flower garlands, cloth, and sprinkled with offerings like flower petals and powders (spices). At this point one of the younger cousins was given the honor of performing the aarti, offering fire to the deity (which is done by lighting camphor on a tray and rotating it before the murti), and the circulating it to everyone so that they can receive the warmth of the holy fire. The aarti itself was accompanied by chants and clapping, including the frequent interjection of: 'ganpatti bappa - morya!' (which roughly translates to 'oh Lord Ganesh'), a phrase I'm sure I heard (and repeated) no fewer than 8 dozen times in the past 48 hours. This is followed by several other phrases, whose transliterations and meanings I don't know.

After the puja process, we began the much anticipated eating process, though we were tided over by the offerings of ladoo and modak (sacramental sweets). Much fuss was made over whether I needed anything else while eating (a spoon? more rice?) but I ate on the floor with my hand with the best of 'em, if I do say so myself. Over the meal my advisor explained that Ganesh is seen as the god of the masses. I can't think of a better place than Mumbai for ultimate celebrations of such a deity.

After lunch I was advised to go take a nap, which didn't take much convincing (after little sleep the night before). I slept well and was awakened to 'Glenna! It's time to put on sari' In a matter of moments I was ceremoniously taken out of my kurta and wrapped up in a lovely maroon sari. It was at this point that I realized that I had a large tear along the seam of my kurta. ('Yes, everybody was talking about it'. Great.) There must have been six of seven ladies filtering in and out of that room. One woman, Monika, skillfully wrapped the sari, brushed out my curly hair (no easy feat), put up my hair in traditional style - with flowers, and did my makeup (hello, burgundy lipstick). I think they enjoyed dolling me up. Rishika cutely doted on me, saying things like 'You look prettier than Aishwarya Rai' which is both very flattering and absolutely untrue. (She was used as the face of Indian Barbie, to give you a frame of reference.)

traditional kirtan, stories of the gods in music and song

The guests began filtering in.. and just kept on coming! I would say I've never seen so many Indians in one room but that just wouldn't be true. Much fuss was made over my presence, some more obviously than others (Rishika informed me: 'everyone is talking about you.' then added, 'they are all praising you.') Eventually once everyone had arrived - I would say at least 35, but perhaps more - the puja began. It was much the same as before, though this time I was given the task of performing the aarti, which I hope I did without looking to bewildered. Prasad was given, guests took darshan, and offerings of flowers, money, sweets and more were presented to Shri Ganesha. Everyone once again gathered on the floor - a beautiful blend of colorful saris (I swear it was as if they coordinated - no two were the same shade) and kurtas. The daughter, Sukhi (the dancer) oversaw a group of her students performing a classical dance. Then the musicians came out and we saw a traditional kirtan, a mix of sung and spoken word stories about the gods. All I could make out were the names of the gods, but I was later told that I was 'very attentive'. Whew. This was followed once again by food - paranthas, dal, rice, pickle and plenty of sweets. As the evening came to a close and guests began to filter out, the family and I discussed this and that.. my impressions of India, Indian English, yoga asanas. We had a final cup of chai together before hitting the hay.

Utterly exhausting. And this was just day one! More to come...