see Ganesh carried by a frenzied mob, see Ganesh introduced to some water, see Ganesh drown

Above picture: He has accepted his fate

After visiting Hyderabad and seeing the fervent kick-off of the annual Ganesh Festival, I couldn’t help but catch “Ganesh” fever.

What made it worse was me learning about the infamous, and polluting, Ganesh dunkings that take place at all sizable bodies of water in the days ensuing the festival’s kick-off.

Unfortunately, my place is not very close to any sizable bodies of water, so at night I would just teasingly listen to the fireworks, loud music and yelling mobs as they carried some poor Ganesh to his watery end.

Above picture: Looks like he’s waving good-bye, huh?

As the days passed, I got more and more worried that I wouldn’t get to take in any good Ganesh-baptisms-gone-wrong viewings.

At work, I would question my colleagues on if they saw any good Ganesh drownings.

Above picture: Final farewells

Thankfully, over the weekend I was in a different part of thecity and came across a frenzied crowd carry a Ganesh down to one of Bangalore’s dirty water-holders.

The people were so happy and, at the same time, so serious about the whole process of dunking Ganesh. Supposedly, there is an exact science to it which is rigorously followed by all dunkers.

Picture above: Ganesh goes down like a gentleman

Lesson of the day: Don’t dress like a colorful elephant-god in early-September.