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I did a post on Ganesh Chathurti a couple of years back (link). Today is Ganesh Chathurti. As I told you in the earlier post, we live in the outskirts of Chennai and the Ganesh temple here still celebrates Chathurti like it is celebrated in villages and small towns. The utsav moorthy (the small Ganesh Vigraha which is a small replica of the original deity) is kept in the decorated temple car (rath) and taken like a procession through the nearby streets. The car stops in front of the houses, who wish it to stop there and we do archana to the god on the road itself. Normally, the procession starts at 7 pm and ends by 10 pm. We draw fresh rangoli in front of the house in the evening and wait outside when the car enters our street. Our temple people decorate the car beautifully and artistically, every year. Now, to the pictures of the car:
Gajaananam Bhoota, Ganaadhi Sevitam,
Kapiththa Jumbhoo Phala Saara Bhakshitam,
Umaa Sutam Shokha Vinaasha Kaaranam,
Namaami Vighneshwara Paada Pankajam!
This is the beautiful teak wood rath (temple car), before the flower decoration! I took this picture today evening.
We are waiting for Ganesha's visit in front of our house along with the cows! These cows sleep in front of our house every night and leave in the morning! If my husband comes home late, he has to shoo off these animals first for the car to enter the house! It is fun to watch!
More cows joined us for the Lord's darshan! You can see the rath in the distance!
This is the beautifully decorated Ganesha in the rath!
Hope you enjoyed having the darshan of Lord Ganesha! After posting the picture of the cows, I thought I will add one interesting video of our intelligent Indian Cow (thank you, Partha Sir, for the video!) Here, it is! Enjoy!
Reposting this again today (9.9.13) I miss these things. We have left the old house now where this temple car was coming to our door. We are in a flat, two stories above. This is one of the things I miss most.
Jai Ganesha!
42 comments :
In Chennai we half a dozen or more pillayar temples very close to our house and all of them celebrating the festival in different scales with one or two throwing in a music concert too.Thanks to you I could witness the celebrations sitting here.
far away
Yes ,i do remember reading that post of yours about temple rath (car)and i think it is great.I laughed at shooing away the cows thing .... i know how funny it could get .
Thanks for the awesome Ganesha Darshnam .A Very Happy Ganesha Chaturthi To You too :)
What a wonderful post ! Ganesh Chaturthi festival , when it was introduced by Lokmanya Tilak, was something you celebrated together, in a sarwajanik way. I am just so amazed that even the cows wait to join... ! Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to you , and pat the cows on the back from me ...
We had a good chaturthi.. celebrated at my MIL house. When we returned home he was already around our streets. Didnt have time to buy archanai thattu :( Sigh!
Still it was very good.. They burst crackers and had lots of lights.. my son (3 yrs) said it was ganesh's b'day and was super excited.. he cried that he too wanted to go around with ganesha when he started moving away from our house
happy Ganesh chaturthi !..Saqndhya can you do a post on the details of pooja..how it is done here in chennai?..I so much want to know everything..what you prepare.what you chant and serve to Ganesha?
happy Ganesh chaturthi !..Sandhya can you do a post on the details of pooja..how it is done here in chennai?..I so much want to know everything..what you prepare.what you chant and serve to Ganesha?
Lovely post, Sandhya! Great photos of the decorated (and undecorated !) temple Rath.
Here in Maharashtra, the Ganapati festival is often celebrated in a collective way, with everyone joining in the festivities.
K.PARTHASARATHI: Our temple also conducts some concerts, but small ones during the festival. Mostly the local talents! But the temple, though a small one, is neat. We like this temple.
KAVITA: Thank you, Kavita and we wish you the same! Did you see the last link of a cow? It is interesting!
UGICH KONITARI: Thank you, Ugich! We wish you the same! They poured go mutra on my rongoli and sanctified our house too!
HEMA: Yes, children love these festivities, Hema! Nice to know that he enjoyed!
RENU: Thank you and wish you the same, Renu!
Will do it, Renu!
MANJU: Ganapathi bappa moria is very famous in Mumbai, I have heard. Once when we went on tour to Mathura, we saw 'uriyadi', we call it in Tamil...the children make a tall pole and hit the butter pot...I know the name also, I have forgotten now, Manju! I have seen that here, also, in Chennai,long back, but have never seen recently anywhere in the city.
Our temple car is beautiful with lot of artistic work. I think it is made out of rosewood.
Nice pictures, Sandhyaji! Thanks for sharing :)
Wish you a very happy Ganesh Chaturthi too!
Happy ganesh chaturthi sandhya.
Here in my colony when ganesh is taken for visarjan,he is taken in a lorry and the lorry stops at every house in the colony.And few people break coconuts,few take out arathi and prasad is given to every house where the lorry stops.
I missed reading ur old post..
:-)
The cow must be wondering why the elephant god gets more attention!
Beautiful pictures .. and happy ganesha chaturthi to you and everyone around ..
and well shooing of the cows , dont they get the hint to now sleep there at night :)
Bikram's
what a sweet post..already missing chennai and mumbai..yr post..well...nice yar nice..
The cows look cool... The people from my opposite house have come from the north and they keep something out every day. The cows come and eat it exactly at 4 PM every day and go! BTW, Wishing you a happy vinayaka chathurthi too... Nice decoration (lats pic).
Destination Infinity
ROSHMI SINHA: Thank you, Roshmi and we wish you the same!
VARUNAVI: All our area people contribute for the festival. When the Rath stops in front of our house, we do archana and aarthi. They gave laddu prasad.
Nice to know that your colony people take the idol on a parade before visarjan, Saritha. The children will enjoy all these festivities, more than adults!
RADHA: hahaha, yes, they must be wondering. The cow kept on sniffing my aarthi thattu for bananas. I gave her some first, then she didn't look at us!
BIKRAM: They like to sleep under bright lights. I have seen them sleeping on the highways, because of the bright light! The road light is just opposite to our house and they rest in front of our gate!
RAMESH: Thank you, Ramesh!
DESTINATION INFINITY: Thank you, D.I. and wish you the same!
We think that they are just 'cows', but they know the correct time without looking at the clock, do we?!
happy Ganesh chaturthi... :) loved the post :) keep sharing such wonderful things....
Very good picture. Sorry I am late. :)) Belated wishes for Ganesha festival.
Your blog reminde me of something peculier of my place.We have Mata Lal ji devi Temple in Amritsar. She lived during the times of terrorism in Amritsar. She is revered a lot as some people believe that because of her terrorism faded away from Amritsar. On her birth day, every year, such procession is taken out and in similar manner, those who believe put flower decorations in front of their doors, to welcome the prabhat feri.Similar procession is also taken out by ISKCON in Amritsar on Janamashtmi. Life is so similar in India, so are the festivities! Thanks for sharing!
MUHAMMAD ISRAR: Welcome to my blog, Muhammad Israr!
Thank you!
A: Thank you, Amrit!
JYOTI JOSHI MITTER: I am very happy that Punjab is peaceful now, Jyoti! Funny thing is, we think that Northern and Southern India's customs are different, but no. Lot of similarities are there in celebrating many of our festivals.
I have heard about ISKON procession. They celebrate Janmaashtami in a very grand scale.
Thank you, Joyti!
ah..just read the meaning of the blog on your profile...absent minded? i dont think so :p
MUHAMMAD ISRAR: Ask my family!!!
? i forgot my question :P lolz...
MUHAMMAD ISRAR: Now, you are Maradhi Mannan! Mannan means King!
hahaha... yes i think i am absent minded...when there were no mobiles, i would usually go to the market to PCO and would forget my home number :P
MUHAMMAD ISRAR: Oh ho...now, you are Maradhi Chakravarthy! King of Kings!
hahahaha...yes i think i am...king of the kings.. :) maha raja :p
MUHAMMAD ISRAR: Happy? See, you got a grand title for visiting my blog!
yup very happy... :) i will keep visiting your blog in the future for more titles :P
MUHAMMAD ISRAR: You are welcome, Muhammad!
:) i have bookmarked your blog :)
nanri amma nanriii:)
Loved your description of the rath and the Ganesha festival celebrated from your old house. I can understand how you miss such things in your life.
Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to your and your family.
Ganpathi is looking so beautiful Sandhyakka. We celebrate here in our own small way...nothing like India though.
A lovely post Sandhya! Happy Ganesh Chaturthi:)
Lived in a pillaiyar kovil street for last 7 years we witness cart procession every year in our street and even before that there used to be a car festival in our native place in Adyar. Just four months back we shifted our house and here there’s no pillaiyar temple but few house have shrines close to their compound wall.
Nice photos... u should have tried capturing the entire decorated cart at near. Are u still living at outskirt of Chennai?
I am missing these things too. There were multiple temples near our house and so we usually multiple processions of Ganapathi. Miss those in US :(
Happy Ganesh Chaturti!
You could have posted a pic of this year's vinayaka chathurthi celebrations at your house no?
Destination Infinity
RAMA ANANTH: Thank you, Rama! Some things will not return in life and this is one!
BHAGYASHREE: Here, we lived in the outskirts and we had our street Ganesha. Unlike other areas where they keep a huge Ganesha under a pandal during this festival, our Ganesha comes to our door step where we do archanai and they do aarathi to the uthsava murthy, everything in front of our house! We will cherish these memories always.
RAHUL BHATIA: Thank you, Rahulji!
JEEVAN: Your native place is Adyar? Great!
Did you read the link, I had quoted in the beginning of this post, which is my earlier post about this festival and you can see one more picture of the rath there. The lights are too bright and the picture doesn't come out clearly.
All the best for the new house, Jeevan. We are also in a new flat now, for the past 3 months. We will get used to our new places soon, Jeevan.
AVADA KEDAVRA; Our country is our country,A.K. Come back one day to enjoy these things!
DESTINATION INFINITY: Thank you, D.I. This time I was too busy. I had to leave for Thirupati in the afternoon after the pooja. Thirupati is near empty now because of the agitations and since it was on a festival day, darshan was good.
Here in Delhi, we hardly had any Ganesh Chaturthi. I miss the celebrations.
wowww ganpati bappa morya..sandhyaji...sorry i was away for sometime...nice to be back here..will stay connected best :)
ONKAR: Welcome to my space, Onkar!
I thought Delhi celebrates this festival like Mumbai! I wonder why it is not so!
Thank you, Onkar!
RAMESH: Nice to see you back, Ramesh! Take care.
Great blog. Lovely post. Food for an NRI, starved for such delights.
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