Religious congregations are generally the last place you would find me spending my time. But quite oddly, I am either growing old or senile thanks to the lack of good food and ale. Now, don’t mistake me for an atheist, for I do believe in the presence of a God, a Supreme Being and puppet master manipulating our lives. Except, my belief finds worship not in the form of daily feverish prayers and insane rituals like fasting. I am more like the protagonist in ‘The Fiddler on the Roof’ who spends a good time of his day merely just talking to God. At least, with that, I understand my prayers rather than say them in a language I can’t comprehend.
Now, why all this talk about God? We brought it a Ganesha Idol for the Ganesh Chaturti celebrations. I’m normally quite cold when it comes to participation in such fanfare. But for some odd and unexplainable reason, I found myself actually eager to do the whole dancing to drums and helping bring the idol inside the campus and decorate the place for tomorrow’s celebrations. Many friends back home were shocked when I told them that my evening was spent doing this.
Even now, there are reasons to which I can’t explain why I am feeling unusually upbeat about the festival. And for once, it isn’t for the Prasad at the end of the function. I actually enjoyed the whole affair. I think I have reached that point in life where you need god’s assistance to get through the day as your fate is no longer in your hands….or I have reached that stage where I am so bored, that any form of partying is accepted. The entire day was sort of fun. Apart from the usual Ganapathi-Nikhilesh analogy jokes. Some samples are:
Dude, the Ganapathi’s tummy is smaller than yours!!! Go on a diet !
Dude, don’t steal any of the ladoos….
The best one yet…. Dude, don’t stand next to the idol! People won’t know the difference as you are so fat!
Haahahahahahahahahaaahahaha !!!!! Someday I tell you, these thin people making fat people jokes are going to get what’s coming to them.
I am reminded of the ‘ Ganapathi baba maurya’ procession of class 2. I joined the new school a day before the Ganesh Puja. This school was in Maharashtra, at an island near Mumbai. Some of the more enthusiastic seniors thought that it was auspicious that such a healthy child with the surname ‘Murthy’ has joined the school so close to the Ganesh Puja and paraded me around the school on their shoulders like a conquering hero. Well……that’s what I tell myself! But I did get the parade and everyone screaming ‘Ganapathi baba maurya….’. Come to think of it, all the dances in school that I was in had me in the most important role - the Ganesh in the center who got the opening act with all the nice girls dancing bharatnatyam around me! I remember, I once got so bored, that the left hand that was up supposedly blessing the audience, slowly drooped and towards the end, I gave a quick wave at the audience! Needless to say, the dance teacher yelled her lungs out at me….and I was rocketed into the ‘hall of weird awesomeness’ !
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