IMMERSION OF KNOWLEDGE!

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to hurt anyone's sentiment or mock anyone's belief. It is purely a personal opinion and point of view. No offence meant.

Hola! So the apparently boring and absolutely buoyant thing in the city right now, after the hideous scams and scamsters is the Ganpati Festival! Woohooo! The Elephant God ( Existing through the credentials of a delirious story) is here! The city has been lit up and the people are acting gay (either meaning valid). Suddenly everyone has become a theist and no kidding but their miraculous love for Ganesha amazes me! The people who whine to queue up and buy railway tickets at railway stations (Also demand  non-working ATVM machines and coupons stuff) stand in line for more than 24hours just to touch the feet of a God who's going to be dumped in some beach soon, polluting it obviously and not be cared thereafter! Not to forget the holy mess people create before finishing off their so called ritual. Noise pollution, air pollution, water pollution and the traffic jams. Phew!

Now let me ask, what kind of a religious practice is this? You call this act of degrading the nature a divine festival?

Lets have a flashback and see what it was then and also try to realise what it has become into now!

Ganpati was born out of dirt and the "Father of Indian unrest", Lokmanya Kesav Bal Gangadhar Tilak transformed household worship of Ganesha into Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav so as to banish the religious barriers amongst people and unite them. He also established this with the intention of representing the cycle of nature i.e., "Spawned from dirt and exiled into dirt". Back then people made Ganpati out of mud and clay. People worshipped it for a few days; 3, 5 or 10 days as per their convenience and immersed it in water. A few others venerated the already present idol in their house, dipped it in water for 3times and put it back to where it was. This was the actual practice, unharmful and divine.

Let's get back to the present now! BAM! It's not in any way what it was! It has become a business, wholly commercialized. It's a fancy! People have started showing off in the name of divinity.They want the best looking idol irrespective of the substance its made up of. The divinity is almost gone. They want to show off their wealth and make sure their Ganpati, decorations, etc is better than their neighbours'! Its like a terrorist attack on nature. Thermocols, LEDs, plastic flowers and there comes the unnecessary dhol, gulaal and firecrackers. The average decibel level of 60-80dB exceeds 140dBs during Ganpati visarjans. Every time they shout Ganpati Bappa Morya i feel like shouting back Make that noise less-ya!

DJs playing during Sarvajanik Visarjans is the new fad. They increase the dB levels even more and also concentrate more on bollywood masala songs as religious songs are too mainstream for them . Now aren't these people the ones mocking divinity?

Coming to the ill effects, Firecrackers make a noise of 125dB, create smog and reduce visibility. The gulal is made from Chemical dye.They contain sand, starch and salt which causes allergies, irritation of eye, skin and respiratory diseases. The great day of celebration causes damage to the environment like nothing else. 1000s of idols made from POP, toxic metals, coated with deadly paint containing mercury, cadmium, lead and carbon are immersed in our water bodies. Mumbai's sea takes in about 1.5Lakh idols every year causing the oxygen level in water fall by 50% after the 10 day festival. It harms the aquatic life and also we humans. We are destroying ourselves in the name of festivity. Do we really want this mess? Let's take a look at our idols after the grand farewell :D

Million Dollar sight, no?
All these pictures make me wonder if its really the immersion of the idol or our senses and knowledge. And if this is how you show respect to your God, whom you believe is above all, then I am better off as an atheist.
Or rather an environmentalist in this case :P ;)

P.S- I shudder to think how they must be handling "people" equal to them, if the divine Lord is facing such a big brunt!

So Dark The Con Of Man...So Dark Indeed!

                                          - The Da Vinci Quote