Ganapati in Mumbai

Tomorrow is another Indian holiday, so I get a random Wednesday off (which makes up quite nicely for having to work on Labor Day). The festivities are essentially starting today though, as many people are taking the day off at work, or at many companies, don’t work at all. In light of the holiday spirit, this morning’s commute wasn’t as grim as the one I recounted a few days back. Today, there were kids playing in the street, flying kites and playing cricket, and most of the pedestrians running across the road to avoid our Qualis had an extra bounce in their step (although maybe that was because of how fast we were driving towards them : )

The holiday is Ganapati, a festival honoring the birth of Ganesh, one of the most popular Hindu gods. He has the head of an elephant (see the links below for some of the versions of the story why). Ganesh is particularly revered in Maharashtra, the region where Mumbai is, and the festival will continue for 10 days, though September 17. Apparently on Chowpatty Beach near Colaba, there is a huge Ganesh that comes out of the water (do they drag it? I don’t know), but it’s well known enough of an event that Lonely Planet remarks on it. However, the traffic is apparently so awful to try to get there, that unless we wanted to leave early in the morning and sit there all day, it’s not worth going to. I just hope the paper will have some good pictures of it the next day because I’m going to sleep in.

http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/manorlh/hinduism/ganesh.html
http://thegreenman.net.au/chris/ganesh.htm
http://savanna.theshoppe.com/myths/ganesh.html