Thursday 12 September 2019

[Locality]-cha Raja's final journey

Transliteration inherently involves some loss where the new script has limitations (see: கோகுல் /kogul!) but an interesting phenomenon is when it takes on the inflections of the new language. Just within a few hundred metres of where I am, you can "navy" being written as नेव्ही (nevhi) and "stores" स्टोअर्स (stoars), even when it is entirely possible to write them without the extra letters. This is indeed how they are said; the transliteration is less to do with reproducing the original word and more to do with putting down the local interpretation of it, in the local script.
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Today marks Anant Chaturdasi, the tenth day following Vinayaka Chaturthi and the (final) day that Ganesha idols are immersed in water. For historical reasons, this event is a massive, massive event in Mumbai. Huge crowds in long lines gather to get a darshan of the deity, and still bigger crowds usher the lord through the streets on Visarjan day.
The glamour of the whole affair makes one think about how far removed the festival has become from its roots, and even from its reincarnation as a way to unite Indians under the British. What does it say about devotees' faith, if they have to insure their idol for tens of crores of rupees? More troubling to me is the willingness to spend weeks creating the idol, worshipping it for ten days and then drop it into the polluted ocean; inversely, the willingness to release Plaster-of-Paris idols painted in dangerous heavy metals into the ocean, indeed a divinity in its own right. 
To mitigate the environmental damage, the BMC introduced artificial ponds for immersion a few years ago, but the purpose is being defeated as the water is pumped untreated into stormwater drains which eventually reach the sea. 
The PoP idol remnants are crushed into smaller pieces and transported to construction companies. Surely this is a jarring fate for the idol? I wonder if this even crosses the minds of the throngs of devotees. The tradition of immersing a clay idol in a (local, natural, clean) water body holds symbolic significance, and while one aim is to probably discourage people from becoming too attached to the idol and recognising the eternal divinity... this rather warped version of that very much confuses me. 
That said, a show of celebration and devotional abandon is a beautiful thing; different cities have their version of that, and the spirit of this one is like no other.

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