My Eco-friendly 'Ganpati' Bappa Morya...!!!

I am Happy as Ganesha, my favourite God has come to my home today, on account of 'Ganesha Chaturthi'. He will stay with us for a day and a half. I am happier because he is in his 'Eco-friendly' avataar this time! If you wish to have his Darshan please come to my place before 04:00 PM tomorrow(24-Aug-09). After 4:00 we will take him for Visarjan. And if you can't make it to my place, no worries as I am uploading his picture in this Blog. Here it is :

We had brought Sumukh (Ganesha) home for three years in a row some years back. Usually people bring Ekdanta(Ganesha) home for odd number of years:1 or 3 or 5 or 7 and so on.
But after my marriage last year, my father had a wish to bring Kapil(Ganesha) one more time to my home. So this year he proposed to celebrate Ganeshotsav at my home. I don't know why but I was not very very keen and enthusiastic this time. There are many such things I feel in my life now which I used to love before a few years, but for which I am not very enthusiastic now. Earlier we used to celebrate Janmashtami also with great zeal at my Granny's place. We used to decorate the jhula and make a jungle for Krishna-Janma. But since 2-3 years I haven't attended the Janmashtami celebration there. Same way on all earlier occasions, I had thought about some themes and had decorated my place with lot of creativity and enthusiasm. This year I was not sure whether we would do any such decor.
We had to decide what kind of idol we would buy this time. I and my sister were discussing about it since a week. But I was so busy during whole last week that I could not go and check out the idols being sold near my place. I didn't even send a formal invite mail to my colleagues whom I wished to invite to my home for GajKarnak(Ganesha) Darshan. On Friday eve I checked my office emails and saw a couple of invites for Lambodar(Ganesha) Darshan and I realized I could not send it to anybody and Saturdays are holidays for us.
2-3 days back I had gone to 1-2 shops to cursorily check the prizes of Vikat(Ganesh) idols. They were very costly and bigger in size too, for my home. I am a strong recommender of Eco-Friendliness and wished to go for one such idol this time. But there is not much awareness about this kind of issue in the market and I had heard a friend saying most of the shops or idol-makers were not even aware of any such thing called 'Eco Friendly Idol’. Saturday morning I went to see VighnaNash(Ganesh) Idols finally and upon reaching the Ganesh Art Shop near my place, found many cute Vinayak(Ganpati) idols there of varying sizes and shapes. People have a crazy tendency to see DhumraKetu(Ganesha) in various forms : like GanaaDhyaksh(Ganesha) in Shankar Mahadev swaroop or BhaalChandra(Ganesha) in Hanumaan swaroop or in Vishnu or Saibaba swaroop. Infact some weird artistes make Gajaanan(Ganesha) in human forms also, like one idol I saw in Shivaji Maharaj's swaroop! I personally don't like this trend of giving some other form or swaroop to VakraTund(Ganpati) other than his own. Though I like creative idols made out of marbles or chocolates or dry-fruits or fruits or any other such articles/objects. In Ganesha Art Shop, I was browsing through a couple of KrushnaPingaaksh(Ganesh) idols and I found three idols separately kept. These were moderate in size. Neither too small nor very big. I wanted to buy a small idol not costing too high as I feel one wastes money if he spends too much in buying the bigger size idols for home. But I got curious to know why those three moderate sized Gajvakatra(Ganpati) idols were kept separately. The girl on the shop counter told me that those were Eco-friendly VighnaRaj(Ganesha) idols. Wah! I had forgotten also that I wanted to buy an eco-friendly idol when I came to this shop and here I accidentally found a few such idols! I was happy. I asked about the prize. They were costlier than the small size idols one of which I would have bought had I not came across these eco-friendly ones, but I wanted to go for one of these eco-friendly idols only now. I asked the girl at the counter why these eco-friendly ones were very less in number. She explained me that due to these types of idols being made from Mitti (soil only) and not using Plaster-of-Paris (which is very harmful for environment), they can not be coloured very brightly as people like them to look. People prefer gaudy and bright colours only and also there is not much awareness also about the harmful effects of immersing the normal plaster-of-Paris idols into sea water. Thus people do not prefer less attractive eco-friendly idols. Now the whole concept of Ganeshotsav is based on faith in God then why this attractiveness concept? But that is reality. Infact idol-makers also have to earn and sell the idols so if they don't find buyers for less attractive eco-friendly idols why would they make it in bulk? But I wanted to buy eco-friendly DhumraVarna(Ganpati) only and I did that! (And felt very happy and satisfied even though I had bought it for three times the higher prize than what budget I had in my mind!)
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I decorated my place also with 'Eco-Friendly' theme. I used all the items available at home - different colours and size Duppattas and Chunris. See the pictures:

Also I decided to put all the different Ganesha idols and pictures already at my home gifted by somebody or bought by us.

Ganesha is the only cute and lovely God who is liked by artistes and creative souls alike! Which other God you would be able to see in so many different forms (liking singing Ganesha, Sleeping Ganesha, Dancing Ganesha or playing some musical instrument or in some latest urban avataars two-wheeler driving Ganesha!)
Ganesha is my favourite God!
Please come to my home before 4:00 PM tomorrow (24-Aug-09) if you wish to have darshan and if you can!

May Ganesha bless all of us...!

Ganpati Bappa Morya..!!!Mangal Moorty Morya..!!

While Giving Out Money...

Who in the world would not like to receive money?! Be it in the form of salary or some lottery prize or as blessing when touching the feet of some elder relative...!

I read a news article today morning that even though Government has ordered schools to pay teachers their salaries on 1st of every month,they are paid their salaries only by 20th. Isn't it shocking? People work so hard the whole month and when it is time to get paid for all their hardwork, employers behave unfairly and delay their salary.

I am so lucky that I get my salary always even before the month ends! By 29th,30 th or 31st my salary is always deposited in my salary bank account.I am very lucky and happy to have joined such a place of work where people are being valued. Paying on time indicates that you care for your people and value their contribution.

I have generally observed people hesitating while it is time to shell out money. While getting their work done, they do everything in their control, but when the work is done and it is time to pay their attitude changes.
Recently my father took charge of a program of old Rangbhoomi Songs and Bhavaai to be performed on stage. He had made all the arrangements and his four other artiste friends along with three musicians were supposed to perform in this show which was suppposed to be anchored by me (for the first time I was playing the role of 'host' of a professional show!).All these seven people and my dad and me were supposed to be paid at the end of the show. Now from his pat experiences my dad knew that such programs end late at night and after the show is over, the artistes are in a hurry to leave. But they have to wait till the payment is made to them. My dad took his own money and made the payment envelopes before leaving my home for the show and as soon as the program got over, he handed over the payment envelopes to every artiste. As usual, the program had ended quite late and there were female artistes too in this program. They thanked my dad and left happily. My dad was actually paid the amount after an hour from the show ended! If he had made all the artistes wait for the payment till the time he actually received the money, everybody would have got late. But this simple gesture of my dad touched me!

I fight with my mom and my sisters many times when they bargain with vegetable vendors, pastiwallah or some other pedlars for a rupee or two. They avoid buying things when I am at home!I always keep telling them that they shall pay our kaamwali bai her salary in first 2-3 days of the month quoting my own example.(that I get paid my salary even before the month ends.)How happy she would also feel to get her salary on time.
Dunno if my mom and my sisters follow my advise or not?

But I hope you all, my blog readers would follow my advice and pay in time and have the right attitude while giving out money...!

On the way during my recent journey...

A few days back I had to go to Lonavala for some official work with one of my colleagues. We had hired a Tata Innova car which was too big for just three of us (me, my colleague and the driver).We started our journey early morning. We took Western Express way (going towards Pune).

My colleague narrated an incident which occurred in his building a few days ago. He stays in a multi-storied building and there is this enclosed type of lift in his building. There was a problem with the lift that day and a young girl was trapped inside the lift. After some 15-20 minutes, the problem was resolved and the girl was rescued. She was scared and she vomited after coming out of the lift. Her father made a scene. He had gathered some neighbours and a few other residents of adjoining wings of the building and all of them started beating the security man who was on duty then. Now there was no fault of that poor security fellow. But he was made scapegoat and had to suffer the rage and beating of the angry crowd. I felt pity and sympathy for the poor fellow. How justified is such behaviour of a crowd?

Though it was very hot outside, the car being Air Conditioned, our journey was pleasent.We reached a Food Joint after travelling for about two hours. I had had my breakfast before leaving but my colleague and the driver wanted to have their breakfasts so we stopped at this food joint and entered the restaurant. I didn't want to eat anything but I just read the rates of food items available there. Idli-Sambhar which we get for Rs.20/- in a decent restaurant here in Mumbai was charged for Rs.35/- there in that restaurant and the Vada-Paav which we get for Rs.5-6 was available for Rs. 15 /- there. All other items were also heavily priced. I wondered if the quality there was beyond ordinary but after my colleague tasted the food, we concluded that it was ok and not very very good. I thought why then these guys were charging premium charges for their food items? Just because their joint was on a High-way, far from the main city and there were not many other restaurants in the vicinity, should they charge so high for ordinary food items of normal quality? Is it fair to take undue advantage of something in such a manner? Is it ethically correct? Even if one is doing business, should money or profit be the only criteria of the business? Just taking the example of Idli-Sambhar in that restaurant, if the owner of the place had kept the price of this food item Rs.25/- (Rs. 5/- more than the normal rate), it would be justified. But was the price of a single plate Idli-Sambhar at Rs. 35/- is too high.

We come across many such other scenarios in our lives. If there is some problem in a specific area, then the Auto-Rickshaw or Taxi drivers would charge higher amount for going to that area. If there is shortage of water, then natural resource and basic element necessary for life - water will be sold by some people at a high price.

I kept thinking about these points and my destination - Lonavala came. But my thoughts on the points above still kept running through my mind.

Enjoy the journey while reaching your destination...

This thought occurred to me early one morning while I was returning from swimming pool a couple of days back after my swimming session. I don't go for swimming daily as I am getting lazier day by day these days. But whenever I go for swimming, this is my experience all the time. The journey is wonderful!
Early morning when you walk, a freshness is there in the air. You also feel charged up as you walk in this fresh air. The early morning air seems pure also as it is not polluted as vehicles have not started crowding on the street early morning. I like listening to music so I wear my headphones and walk listening to my favourite songs. But even if you don’t listen to music on your phone or i-pod, there is lot more on the way early morning when you walk on the street in that fresh air. There is chirping of birds, noise of bicycles of Doodh-wallahs,ho-ha of newspaper vendors and newspaper-delivery boys on the side of the street, voices of children going to school, radio being played in some house or shop around the corner of the street etc.etc. I always enjoy these sounds of morning when I am not listening to music on my cell phone.
I walk for around 25 minutes to reach swimming pool. Swim for about half an hour and start my return journey. During my return journey hustle-bustle of city life has begun to some extent. I see employees waiting for their company bus at specific points and I feel I haven't even had my break-fast and bath! Looking at those employees, I feel I am late! And I increase my speed to reach home faster!
I also encounter few other health-freaks like me returning from some gym, in their exercise-attire. I meet lot many different kind of people, most of them starting their day.
I like feeling rays of early morning sun on my face, during my return journey.
This season, I was fortunate enough to experience first shower of monsoon during my return journey from swimming pool. I enjoyed the rain heartily. I listened to the track 'Barso Re...Megha Megha..' from Guru and caught the raindrops on my body. Mother earth was also enjoying the rains and was giving rise to that lovely smell which I love very much! All this time it was waiting for the rains after getting heated badly through the summer.
It was a very nice scene looking at people behaving differently on receiving the rains unexpectedly. Some were running here & there to find shelter for not getting wet. Few others (like me!) were enjoying the rain by expanding their hands as if to greet the rain with their welcome hug! I loved the touch of the raindrops on my face. Suddenly the climate became sunny when the rains had not stopped yet. I felt like singing that song we used to sing aloud in childhood - "Aav re Varsaad..Dhebariyo Varsaad..Ooni Ooni Rotali ne Karela nu Shaak..!" (When the rain continues in the sun-light, we used to call it 'Nagadiyo varsaad'!)
I saw a few dogs and a cow getting wet and felt like they were also enjoying the first rain of the season!
At this point of time only I thought of sharing my feelings with you all through blog! And finally today, I got time to put my thoughts here!
I have always felt that journey is more enjoyable most of the times than the final destination. During a Trek or a picnic also I have enjoyed my journey thoroughly.
Is not life like that too...If we consider it as a journey (and heaven (or hell!) as the final destination, than we can make it memorable by doing good deeds and enjoyable by giving joy and a reason to smile to others whom we meet on our way!

I hope we all enjoy our journey of life by living every bit..!

A "Help" experience...

Once I was returning from my office as usual in the evening. My home station - Malad came and I was pushed out with many others by the flock of co-travellers who were getting down at Malad. Crowd and moreover humid-hot climate of Mumbai make the local train travel, a worst experience. I breathed relief after getting down on the platform. The train moved further and so did I.A few steps further I noticed a herd of people surrounding somebody lying unconscious on the platform, near station master's office. Out of curiosity, I also could not help myself from checking out who it was. There was a young guy, little younger than me, lying on the ground unconscious.
People have this very bad habit. Crowd a place where something has happened and be a mere dumb spectator. Do nothing. Enjoy the Tamasha.
Looking at the unconscious boy, a few said that the boy might have got epilepsy attack; a few others suggested he might have had empty stomach and might have fallen unconscious due to weakness. One of them even suggested the boy might have fallen from the train. A lady was saying,"somebody shall make the boy smell an onion or a chappal (footwear)." But nobody was taking any action. Infact they had surrounded the boy and ensured that he does not get enough air to breath.
I ran out of the station to bring an onion, as I knew that just outside the station a few vegetable-sellers used to sit and sell vegetables. I asked and grabbed an onion and came back on the platform where the boy was lying. But I noticed that nobody was there now. Neither the boy nor the crowd! I went to Station master's cabin and asked about the boy. A person sitting in that office said in a rude tone that if I was a relative of that boy or what. I replied that I was not related to that boy in any way. But I wanted to help him and I had brought an onion for him to smell. He signaled that the boy is lying inside the room. I went inside.2-3 police officers and a few other men were trying to shake him and bring him into his senses. He was responding and in a few moments he came to conscious state. But still he was in a drowsy condition and he tried to get up and walk but didn't succeed. He fell back. I gave the onion to one of the men there and he broke the onion and took it near the boy's nose so that the boy could smell it. The boy though weak, was conscious now. He snatched the onion from the man's hand and threw it! Police man asked him if he was hungry. The boy nodded to indicate he was hungry. I told him I would feed him and asked him to come with me to the stall outside, on the platform. The boy had to take support of one of the police man's and my shoulder to come out of station master's office room. The boy was not able to maintain his balance and stand or walk properly. We managed to bring him to the stall. We made him drink water and I ordered a Vada-pav and a tea for him. The police man told me the boy had drunk and due to empty stomach he was in this condition. I felt a shock. I don't know why but I felt a sense of regret. I felt I should not have helped this boy at all. A drunkard should not be shown any pity and left on his own. I hate such people who do not have any control over themselves and after drinking beyond limit who loose senses and behave like animals. In parties also you find many such people vomit and spoil the venue and the party. Their friends have to carry them back to their homes. I have a strong sense of disrespect and disgust for such people. They not only loose consciousness but create trouble for their family members and friends also.

The boy tried to eat vada-pav.He just ate a byte and due to his semi-conscious state could not hold the vada-pav and it fell from his hand. I saw it and didn't like it but could not stop there any further and left for my home.