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Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations begin in Mumbai

     Mumbai: The week-long Ganesh Chaturthi festival, that marks the birthday of Lord Ganesha, began with merriment here today. Every year, devotees board the last local train on the Dadar-Madgaon route on the eve of the festival and return with the idols of lord Ganesha in the wee hours by the first local train to organise ritual prayers during the festival at their homes. Those carrying the idols by the local train said that they consider it auspicious. "Every year we buy an idol of the lord for our house and take the lord by this local train. We come here by the last local and go back by the first local. We have been carrying this out for the past 25-30 years," said Narayan Jaisingh Ghosle, a devotee. The compartments of the train looked like a museum of the idols of lord Ganesha with devotees carrying different kinds of the idols - small, large, plain, colourful, eco-friendly and those with latest designs of the lord. Ganesh Chaturthi for years was a personal and private affair. But at the turn of the century, freedom fighter Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak started using it as a platform for political propaganda against British colonial rule. The festival is very popular in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Legend has it that Hindu Goddess Parvati had created Ganesh from a perfumed putty-like substance, used to remove dirt from her body in an ancient self-cleansing ritual, the equivalent of a modern bath. Parvati's husband Lord Shiva, one of the three most powerful Gods in the Hindu pantheon, flew into rage and beheaded the young lad and barred his entry into Kailash, Shiva's snow-clad mountain abode. When he later realised that the boy was created by his wife Parvati during his absence, Shiva brought him back to life by slaying an elephant and giving him the animal's head. Thus was created Ganesh, one of the best-loved of Indian gods.
-Sept 3, 2008