For the love of God, and Wildlife

Planning a holiday can be quite a tedious task, especially when its a family affair. Parents like religious outings, wife wants to relax and enjoy the luxuries, and you like adventure - gosh, life can be so complicated with so many options. But then, as they say, where there is a will, there is a way.

I was in one such dilemma when I was planning my holidays during a recent annual leave. The idea was to accommodate it all - the pending family visit to the holy place, a quite & relaxing holiday and an encounter with wildlife. A little probing and some googl-ing a trip is planned to Gujarat: Mumbai - Palitana - Gir.

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Traversing more than 2000 kms, this was probably one of the most exciting trips of my life. It was divided into two parts, with the first part - a weekend excursion - comprising of Mumbai - Palitana with parents and wifey. From Palitana, parents came back to Mumbai, while wifey and me carried on for a 5 day trip to Gir National Park - which was the second part of the trip. I'll talk about first part in this blog, and will follow it up with a blog on the other part later.

गणपति बाप्पा............चला नाचुया.........

Come August and the great Hindu diaspora gets into a celebration mood. It is said (atleast in my family) that Holi marks the end of the festive season whereas Raksha-bandhan and Janmashtami mark the beginning. So after a dry spell of nearly five months, the Indian diaspora finally has a chance in August/September to deck-up and demonstrate (read: exaggerate) their love for festivals.

Ganeshotsav - celebration of the birth of the elephant headed son of the Hindu deities Shiv andParvati - is one of the most prominent festivals in the western parts of India. It is said that one of India's more famous freedom-fighters, Lokmanya Tilak, popularised the festival as a grand public event (prior to his efforts, the celebrations were private and within the family). The idea was to facilitate community participation and provide a common meeting ground for people of all castes and sects in a time when social gatherings were prohibited by the British rule (somwhere in 1893). The celebrations included learned discourses, dance dramas, poetry recital, musical concerts, debates, etc. so as to spread the messgae of unity and evoke nationalist feelings.

Lokmanya Tilak was a great visionary. But even this great visionary would not have envisioned the future of the practice started with a noble thought. While the festival, even after more than 100 years, is celebrated as (or maybe more) grandly as (than) it was celebrated then, the essence of the celebrations has undergone a lot of change. Instead of promoting unity and oneness, patrons are often seen drunk out of senses, eve-teasing, abusing and fighting. Bhajans and devotional songs have been replaced by the whacky filmy numbers. The traditional dhol and lezim have been replaced by the mordern DJs, flash lights and cheap dances. Not that I am not a fan of the new age hindi music and dance, but its just that your love for those songs and dances can take a back seat sometimes...specially when the ocassion is an auspicious one.



Maybe someone fore-saw this day and therefore the ritual includes submerging the Lord's statue in the waters. Because the way things are today, I am sure that the Lord himself would be wanting to drown himself in water out of shame looking at his 'modern' devotees. Going by he way we are influenced by movies and music, it is quite possible that one day we see the deity's statue in the following avataar:

Videos of the dances i spoke about