" पुढच्या वर्षी लवकर या "

. As an Indian we boast about our culture, traditions and values across the world. Today I feel these cultures; values are on downward spiral, thick and fast.  Not long ago, may be just 15-20 years back, moving along the streets during any festival was fun, joy and would give a sense of happiness. Today the same has changed to worry, fear and sadness, be it any festival, an average citizen is not at all comfortable in participating. So be it Holi, Gokul Ashtami, Ganeshotsav, or Navratri. Little over  a decade ago, it was fun to watch the Govindas moving along the streets, hunting for the handis and forming the human pyramid to break one, but today one is scared to watch these Govindas moving along the trucks and bikes, violating in all possible manners the traffic rules in the city in the name of festivals and an average citizen prefers to stay in-door, rather than stepping out of his residence.

Welcoming the Elephant lord home was and would continue to be my favorite of all the festivals, the feeling is completely different during the presence of the Lord at home or in your society. The void that is created for couple of days after his departure cannot be expressed in words. Lokmanya Tilak had a different vision and purpose when he brought this festival on the streets. Today we have successfully commercialized the entire festival and made it a money making business. The way Ganesh Mandals market themselves is just beyond imagination, it would actually give professional business houses run for their money.  I happened to read, one of the so called famous Mandal who serves the RAJA for 11 days, are offering whooping amounts in crores for celebrities to visit there mandals. Isn’t this amount paid from the donation that is received from the devotees who queue up, anywhere ranging from 15 mins to 2 days to take one glimpse of the RAJA. I am not an atheist, and am no way trying to send out opinion that one should not visit a particular Ganesh Mandal, but the atmosphere that has been created is something I am against, today visiting the RAJA is become a matter of social networking pride. Some of the updates that I receive really makes me wonder with what purpose have they visited this Ganapati.  Uploading pictures, updating status about being with RAJA sounds so hilarious, if the purpose of your visit is to take Darshan of the Almighty, then why are these guys busy updating their social networking sites status and pictures.

The immersion process a decade ago was fun to watch, today the entire path of immersion is covered by huge political banners and pictures of all the jokers, who are forcefully advertising themselves on us and then the procession itself is stooped to such a low level at least in Mumbai, that I really feel if Lokmanya would be watching it ,  he would surely be regretting his decision today. Having a DJ, cheap young shirtless boys drunk having no control on their body movement are part of this HOLY procession, playing item songs during the procession, only gives a feeling what has happened to the rich heritage culture of Abhangas, bhajans and kirtan’s that were a part of these procession few years before. Even the Lord himself would have a million dollar question to return next year amidst such atmosphere.

Time has come that as citizens we start differentiating between good and bad. Stop un-necessary promotion, just because someone else is doing the same on his social networking website. Time has come where we question the authorities why is there no walking place during Ganeshotsav on the streets and footpaths, Why are streets and footpaths handed over to these Mandals, who are mushrooming every year, and with whose permission. What happens to all the money that is being collected under the pretext of donation. Why are such expensive immersion procession taken around. If everyone of us takes the responsibility, authorities will have to answer and only then we can ask the Elephant lord " पुढच्या वर्षी लवकर या "