- By Deepa Krishnan
I clicked a photo of the little Ganesh idol in my kitchen, installed and decorated specially for this year's Ganesh festival. My maid was the chief decorator. The props were simple - leaves, fruits, flowers, incense, coconut - but the effect was lovely. The idol looked beautiful and serene.
If you look at the photo below, you'll see the right hand is raised in abhaya-mudra, offering blessings. On the left hand, usually a modak is placed, but my maid figured an apple was a good idea. Hmm. Healthier, of course.
I clicked a photo of the little Ganesh idol in my kitchen, installed and decorated specially for this year's Ganesh festival. My maid was the chief decorator. The props were simple - leaves, fruits, flowers, incense, coconut - but the effect was lovely. The idol looked beautiful and serene.
If you look at the photo below, you'll see the right hand is raised in abhaya-mudra, offering blessings. On the left hand, usually a modak is placed, but my maid figured an apple was a good idea. Hmm. Healthier, of course.
On the first day of the festival, this is what we cooked at home, as offering. My maid is from Andhra Pradesh, so she decided what to make based on what they did in her village. 
My mum provided the recipe for kozhakattais - steamed rice dumplings stuffed with coconut and jaggery. Once the food had been offered to the Lord, we then got on with the real business of the day - lunch!
What a beautiful idol!It's at times like these that I miss Bombay the most. It was so much fun to be in the midst of all the excitement even though we do not celebrate the festival.
ReplyDeleteFestival greetings to you!
Beautiful idol. Though we get the clay idol which has absolutely no colour on it - as it is environment friendly. Plan to sculpt it at home hopefully the next year. I only wish people would celebrate it at home with idols this size instead of those huge idols and the noisy processions which have absolutely no sanctity. When will people learn that religious practices should be within the four walls?
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm not really a 'practicising Hindu' - I don't go to temples and I don't pray. The idol was the maid's idea, so was all the paraphranelia that went with it. I loved the look of it though - she managed to create so much beauty around it.
ReplyDelete- Deepa
Nice Blog!!!
ReplyDeleteI have added your blog to my blogroll.
Keep up the good job!!!
There is so much fodder here, I cant help but comment. Je suis desolee. (you can imagine the accent over the e).
ReplyDeletebtw, does a person 'practising "RELIGIOUGROUP" ' ever become proficient ? and when s/he does, does s/he stop "practising" and move on to other things?
for the person who commented about keeping Ganpathy at home.. It actually was, until Tilak used the festival as a rallying point for the fight against the British and to show ppl, esp the "I take myself too seriously" type of "practising Hindus", they are fundamentally the same, hence the word "SAARVAJANIK" is associated with the Ganpati festival. Fact is if you go to Kesarwada in Pune, during the festival you will see Tilak's spirit (not literally), hovering over the celebrations.