The Rambling Robot

Mumbai…Ganapati Visarjan… and ‘Lalbaug cha Raja’

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Think of Ganesh Chaturthi + Mumbai and you are already imagining an electric atmosphere in every nook and corner of the city. Right from the hustle bustle of purchasing the idols to decorating the pandals and from the lezim dance to the immersion of the idol, the city just ceases to sleep. The 11th day is when all the idols are taken to the nearest sea or lake for immersion with all his bhakts(devotees) singing and dancing along the way, its a sight to endeavour and enjoy.

My Trip: Being a Mumbaikar, its one thing that I enjoy and I try and make it a point to be there aleast on the day of the Visarjan. Call it unfortunate or me not able to take time off, I wasn’t able to make it for the last 2 years.  However, this year I planned for it about a month in advance and there I was…

I reached Mumbai (Dadar) at 4.30am ( for once, the Indian Railways exceeded Expectations, the expected arrival time was 5.30am). Dead sleepy, I thought I would take a local train, go home and sleep. However, I shocked to see the railway station CROWDED with people at “4.30AM” I mean for a second I thought that I was dreaming.

After standing there for 10 min and seeing a 500 mtr long queue for the tickets, I decided to take a cab to go home. On asking the cab driver, I found out that they had come to visit ‘Lalbaug cha Raja‘ (The King of Lalbaug). The festival was started in 1934 by the local fishermen and vendors and has continued ever since. A lot of people (including me ) believe that when you pray to him with all your faith, he makes them come true.

The 75 year celebrations where taking place this year attracting people from various parts from India. The queue for darshan is so long that it could take anywhere from 6-8 hrs during the day and about 3-4 hrs in the wee hrs of the morning. I assume that most of the people I saw were standing in the queue from 10-11pm on the previous night and going home after the darshan at 4.30 am Phew….

I reached home at about 5.15 am and slept for most part of the day and went out with my family in the evening.

The next day was the day of the Visarjan and we were supposed to go to my Mama’s house. My mama’s house is located at a very strategic location called Chowpatty. Chowpatty is the place where almost all the idols in South Mumbai are immersed and the is infamous for its view. (Apparently, some guy’s terrace was rented this year by a media channel for Rs. 2.5L for just one day for its view )

My mama’s terrace having a fairly decent view of the whole procession, me and my cousins make it a point to be there. The best part being all the ladies of the house (mom, sisters, mami’s, masi’s) sending us beverages and snacks non-stop. The processions start from about 1.30 - 2pm in the afternoon and end at about 5-6am next day with the eagerly awaited ‘King of Lalbaug’ bidding goodbye! The fun and frolic continued through the day with music, masti, dance, the charming idols and ‘creativity’. Yes, expect to see themes to the likes of the Govardhan leela by Shri Krishna to an whole idol made of Chocolate (Yummm…. ), creativity truly has no boundaries.

In the evening, about 10 -15 of us got together and start working on garlands of flowers, coins and currency notes (as offerings to the lord). The length of the garland varies from about 20-30 ft and the designs and patterns that come out are just mind blowing. These garlands are tied across 2 buildings as then lowered as the idols come by. Most of these are offerings to the ‘King of Lalbaug’.

Just to give you an idea of the crowds and the rush, the idol started from Lalbaug at about 12.30 in the afternoon, with Lalbaug being at a distace of 2 hrs from my mama’s house by foot. I leave the rest to your imagination

(The Crowd at Lalbaug)

Finally, the King arrives at my Mama’s house at about 4.30 am in the morning. I and a few other went downstairs to offer prasad to the idol, with barely space to move your feet and to top it the sevak mandal wouldn’t allow us in.

After some amount if convincing and a lot of luck, I barely managed to get through. I offered the Prasad and got modak and a small garland from the Pandit. It was something that I haven’t experienced before, a moment of pure pleasure and joy. It was just Beautiful.

The procession moved ahead and we all came up and passed the Prasad to everyone around.  I sipped the steaming cup of hot coffee my mami had made and got ready to drive back home.

On our way back we all went to the Siddhivinayak temple and finally reached home at about 7am. I just crashed on my bed for about 4hrs, just to realize that I had to catch a train back to hyderabad at 12.30pm. I just had a quick shower, grabbed lunch and I was on my way back. Reaching hyderabad at about 6am.

I think it was one of the wonderful trips that I have had and as my Mama put it, “I was able to acheive the purpose of my trip.”

Last but not the least, “Ganapati Bappa Morya, Pudcha Varshee Lavkar Yaa.”

(PS: This post of dedicated to a friend of mine who has made sure that I post regularly..Cheers.Mr. Vanity)

Monday, September 22nd, 2008 at 6:53 pm and is filed under Travel and Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.