It’s Vinayak Chaturthi today, and I’m slightly regretting not being in Bombay. A year ago, I saw a Bombay Vinayak Chaturthi for the first time, and I was absolutely blown over by it.
Out of all the festivals I’ve seen in India, nothing manages to be one big, cooperative street party the way Vinayak Chaturthi does in Bombay. Diwali in Delhi is pretty much every family against every other family in the firecrackers stakes, Baisakhi in Patiala is a community festival only for the kids, and all the festivals in Bangalore seem to be intensely private family affairs.
(Incidentally, this ties up with my theory of how public space is shared in Bombay, fought over in Delhi, and respected or at least treated with indifference in Bangalore. But that’s another post.)
The biggest culture shock to a Delhiite seeing the Vinayak Chaturthi celebrations in Bombay is the trucks. In Delhi, trucks on a festival day are associated with rowdies from UP crossing the border on Holi to rape and pillage. In Bombay, trucks are filled with happy middle class families who’re dancing and generally having a blast without making a nuisance of themselves. (Well, except for the noise.)
To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, here’s (somebody else’s) photos on the festival: Link, and link.
I have missed the last eight Vinayak Chaturthi.
BTW I was wondering if the celebrations that had blown you away was on Vinayak Chaturthii or Anant Chaturdashi i.e. the day of immersion (ten days after the former). Usually it is the latter that is a bigger celebration on the streets.
Baisakhi? You should have tried Lohri in Patiala:)
Patrix, you are right. I meant the visarjan.
Pam, you are right too. I wrote Baisakhi instead of Lohri. The adults stayed at home while only the kids went out on the streets.
Well yes, that was one bit. But the bonfires – everyone would come out (in our street – maybe not where you saw it), so it wasn’t just kids then.
In Delhi, however – it was like you said – ‘uski lohri meri lohri se badi kaise’ – very high stakes on not just the stacks of firewood, but also the volume of the accompanying techno-punjabi-pop numbers.
Hyderabad during Ganesh Chaturthi is also madness- roadblocks et al. It is a holiday in MIT- which is a huge cosmic joke as that place is perpetually on holiday. N let’s not even talk about Calcoota during Pujas:)
Have linked to this post. -:)