Happy Vinayaka Chaturti. Rather late in the day but been on my feet all day and just got here. Uma and Sunil have already mentioned the kozhukattais, so I won’t go into that.
About the garish coloured idols, my mother-in-law was saying that this year in Kakinada (where my in-laws live), local newspapers and organisations have got together and done a public awareness campaign. Asking people to buy only simple clay/mud idols. And not the garish environment-hating coloured ones. And she says many houses in Kakinada this year have gone back to the basic idol. Wonderful effort, I think.
Not in Bombay though. We looked and looked and in all of Vashi could not find small or simple idols. Clearly, in mandal-land, bigger is better. As for the next ten days, till the big immersion day, am not looking forward to it at all.
I had written This ganpati brought to you by… last year on the immersion day – about the way marketers have started using ganpati as an excuse to sell everything from credit cards to car loans. It only gets worse with each year…
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It’s that day of the year again when half of Bombay comes to a stand-still…. Because the other three-fourths are going mad with devotional frenzy (not to forget commercial greed, but more on that later).
The day of the immersion of the grotesque Ganpatis that have been adorning street corners and busy intersections for the last week or so. When roads get choc-a-bloc and offficedom for once shuts down at 1 p.m. and people rush home in a bid to beat the traffic jams.
Fervour – I can understand. Free entertainment for the jobless – more so.
But the way marketers jump on to the ganpati bandwagon (literally, considering the huge floats of the idol all over the city) never fails to astonish me. Last week, on a late night drive from the airport, we saw this serpentine line of people waiting in front of a huge pandal decorated with plastic and paper flowers (why? why?) – this at a few minutes past midnight.
My hubsand (the naiver one between us – to coin a phrase) believed that these were ‘devotees’ waiting for a darshan of the lord himself (or his image in plaster of paris, whatever).
And it turned out later that a cellphone company was giving out a free mobile (handset and connection, none less) through a ‘lucky draw’ that night at the pandal.
Oh, the coolest thing this season was ringtone downloads of ganpati-oriented songs…. ‘Ganpati Bappa moraya, sarwanna ek mobile diya.’ – Salutations, O Ganpati, please give everybody a mobile. (The original is ‘Ganpati Bappa Morya, Pudcha Varshi Laukar Ya’ – saying goodbye, G, see you next year again)
And the pandal was ‘sponsored’ by ICICI Bank – advertising their ‘lowest interest rates in the market’ for housing loans. (Oh, that made me turn all mushy and devotional at once, but it was just too late in the night).
But I wonder, what do advertisers get out of such mindless sponsorships and advertising?
Why does the concept of social responsibility not occur even to corporates in this country?
No company thought of advising citizens on environmental friendly visarjan (if such a thing is possible) or sponsoring volunteers to control the terrible traffic situation throughout the city today. And displaying their ads prominetly in the process.
Have opportunity, will advertise?
happy Vinayaka chathurthi to you too…..
It’s interesting that Mumbai hasn’t made any effort to make the festival more environmentally friendly, and with out any public awareness campaigns. Bangalore’s had this “paint free Ganesha” thing for a couple of years now, and at least you can GET simple clay ones at any stall (apparently, the dealers say it’s now about 15-20% of their sales). Why is that? Is it because the Visarjan in Mumbai is in the sea, and no one can see the effects, while in Bangalore (or Kakinada) it would be in a lake or a river that gets silted or polluted? Or is it the Mumbai “sab chalta hai” attitude?
As far as the marketing thing goes……it was only a matter of time. Diwali is the BIGGEST sale day in India, and the different new years (Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada, etc) are huge marketing days as well. Why not add Ganesh Chathurthi to that list?
thanks for blogging on this, charu. a group in iit powai had this “make your own eco-friendly ganesha” programme. the “save powai lake” campaign effort has also been trying to urge people to bring simple ganeshas home.
i wonder what aspirations/passions are being loaded on to some of the huge sarvajanik ganeshas though. like golus and durga pujas. i remember one golu that i saw, which had toy monkeys in it to depict the kargil conflict. and i remember reading about a dhananjay-themed pujo pandal. i’m sure the ganesha pandals reflect similar themes. paradoxical. prayer, festival, and yet so much aggression being loaded onto the event.
Sunil, in Mumbai ‘ganpati’ as the festival is known is BIG – literally! nothing else matters except having the biggest loudest ugliest pandal in town. environment, huh? the immersion day is such a nightmare here but people in Bombay have learnt to just live with it.
I found the revival of the clay idol (mann pillayar) promising – my husband was saying that here in vashi, the idols that were easily available were the larger sized + colored ones – the smaller mud ones were made only on order!
using this festival to sell is fine, but I do with companies take their social responsibility too seriously along with the selling motive… unfortunately for most such companies I am not the target audience – or people like me…
Uma, maybe as Sunil says in Bombay visarjan happens in the sea and so people are not too concerned?
incidentally this year I read that the theme is Sarabjit in pakistan. how much worse can it get?
Charu
At temples and monastaries what gets preyed on is our insecurities and our faith. So thats kind of selling as well. So whats wrong with ICICI or mobile phones being sold at these pandals ? I’ve always remembered the donation box being present near the diety. If thats not selling out, then I dont know what else is.
Sourin
Sourin, sure marketers will always look for opportunites to sell but my point is just about why they forget their social responsibilities – can they also not contribute something positive to society? like I have said, environmental friendly visarjan or traffic control….