Its that time of the year and I cant help but wonder how everyone back home must be busy with preparations. What I enjoyed most about growing up in Mysore is it's old world charm, very prominent in areas like, jayalaksmipuram, krishnamurthypuram , Chamundipuram,Agrahara considered to be Parts of Old Mysore.
My Granny's place(The Ballal House) is located in Krsihnamurthypuram which is like a retired man's colony today where every one from a retired T.T. ,retired post master to an Ex Tashildar all live in the same neighbourhood and have been living for the past 50 years or so in such harmony....that one wonders why is it that our generation can't have a neighbour/friend for more than 5-10 years...we are like nomads, living out of suitcases if you think about it. Krishnamurthy Puram might now have a Nilgiris,big bazaar,Fabmall, Tata showroom in it's vicinity but you will still find the oldies hanging around a small coffee stall in the corner of a road that serves some piping hot coffee, nipattu and kara mixture...such is the beauty and tale of this place.
The festival of gowri and Ganesha was always celebrated with so much grandness, that is until one of my grandad's brother and then my grandad passed away...the joint family was incomplete, but I would like to remember the good times
There were a lot of things that needed to be taken care of and we kids loved all the responsibility that was given to us...it made us feel like grown ups ;).....This is what I remember of it though.
I was specifically assigned the task of helping my aunt with the beautiful spread of colorful Rangoli...though I am not an expert, I would just help her by filling the colours and later guard the rangoli from all the bratty kids who would come to see Ganesha, which in most case did not work, the kids would stamp on it and mess it up, I would be so furious and upset and would try to correct it immediately.
Next, how can I forget the delicacies....Sihi(Sweet) Kadabu and Kara(Spicy)Kadabu...the kitchen was busy with all the women of the house cooking and we kids and the Ballal houses' numerous dogs and cats trying to help by being the official tasters ultimately getting kicked out. I don't have a sweet tooth, but I love spicy food and Hence the Kara kadabu was my favourite....Hmmmm....my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Half the excitement was and is always the food he he....
Ok, so now Ganesha had to be placed in a mantapa ( a small stage like object) and the mantapa had to be decorated with everything from garlanded flowers, baaleyele(banana Leaf), silver coins , lamps and flashing light garlands. It sounds simple , but this would take atleast an hour or two as nothing is spared in making Ganesha look his best on this day. Our job here was to help cut the leaves and wash them, cut flowers and make sure the diyas(Oil lamps) stayed lit all the time.
Now that every other thing was taken care of, we would get dressed in our best attire and become the official candy distributors...yes, starting 4:00 in the evening kids and adults from all over the neighbourhood, some known faces some total strangers would pour in to see Ganesha and worship....how would we know....they would come calling...."Ganapathi Kursidhira"...Do you have Ganapathi at home....and we would nod and welcome them...then started our duty of making sure they did not mess the rangoli, offer the ladies KumKuma(kum kum) and flowers and then before they leave the kids get a candy each, ....just for this one candy these kids would come...ha ha...amazing those times....now comes the funny part...we would sometimes catch the same kid come in 3 times, each time with a different shirt or with a different group of kids.....again for one peppermint. This out of all would make us terribly upset and angry....Yes, we were like detectives trying to identify every face...and then...boom...punha barthayidya, ninge chocolate illa hogu(Are you coming the second time, no chocolate for you)....Oh God, those were the days...and why would we do this, so that we would have some candies left at the end of the day to share among ourselves.
Sometimes these memories bring tears to my eyes and I wish I could go back in time and relive these moments,,but alas I have to move on and look forward to tomorrow. So many things have changed since then, so many things are changing now...but the memories are strongly buried in my heart.
last heard, Ganesha is now wearing a face mask to protect himself from the much talked about Swine Flu....what is the world coming to....anyways wish you all a very Happy Ganesh Chathurthi and I am leaving you with this article from TOI about the clay artisans of mysore...and also this famous Kannada song...
Ganesha bandha, kaayi kadubu tindha
Chikka kereli biddha, dodda kereli eddha.
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