Come August- September the festival season begins in Mumbai. It starts with Dahi Handi, the grand celebration to celebrate the birth day of Lord Krishna.
On Chaturthi of the month of Bhadrapad (4h day of Hindu calender month) Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated by Hindus all over India, as the birthday of the god of wisdom, knowledge and prosperity. Shri Bal Gangadhar Tilak started the Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav. (Public celebration as against limiting to private event).
His objective of making this a public celebration was to increase community bonding, enhance unity and integrity in the society. Those were the pre-independence days when there was a need for creating a sense of pride and togetherness amongst the oppressed citizens, the Ganeshotsav served the purpose well.
Today's free India is increasingly seeing depleting levels of any decorum that used to be seen in those days.
Number of Ganeshotsav mandals have sprung up and rising every year in Mumbai and other towns. One would question the basic motive of having more than have 'x' number of mandals in a sq km. Unfortunately, there is no barometer to check the spiraling growth of Ganapati mandals every year.
One would ask, have people suddenly become devout Hindus ? No one would be naive enough to come close to agreeing on that count.
Unfortunately, the commercial angle is order of the day. Collections of the Ganesh mandals run from lakhs of rupees to few crores. There is absolutely no accountability of the collected funds. Rules get blatantly flouted during pandal erection, noise levels are summarily violated. Last week, Zee 24 taas broadcasted repeated and shameless harassment of devotees by the organisers (goons) at a Ganapati mandal. Not surprisingly, no action has been taken by the government. Our esteemed Home minister has issued a warning that such incidents should not get repeated. Pity ! We are highly tolerant citizens. We are used to getting abuse, thrashed, bullied on streets, trains...whats the big deal now that has happened in the temple of worship !!
Traditionally, one would celebrate Ganapati for 5, 7 or 10 days. Lately, one can see large, medium and small idols being taken for Visarjan on any day from 11th to 21st day.
This procession begins at the time and venue of the organiser's choosing. Imagine the chaos on the roads when a large procession is heading towards the nearest beach at 7 pm on a week day cutting across highways and key arterial roads.
Why are we tolerant to such an extent about such civic indiscipline ? Is this an unregulated state ?
I am no atheist. But what I ask is how can one reap fruits of worship by inconveniencing others. Need of the hour is to demand from the Maharashtra government to bring in regulations on any procession which is to be carried out on the public roads of any city / town / village.
- No procession at peak hour (all religions included)
- Public announcement in all newspapers few days prior, about any procession
- Noise levels (crackers and music) need to be below 80 decibels
Only the Lord can save the deteriorating city of Mumbai !
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