Pudhachya varshi lavkar ya!!!



Yesterday was the last day of the 10-Day Ganesh Festival in Pune. On this day, the Ganesh idols are immersed in water - symbolic to Lord Ganesha travelling back to his abode. Pune being the cultural capital of Maharashtra, has certain mandals which are more than a 100 years old. These mandals carry out the festivities as well as the last day procession in the same traditional ways even today.

I was lucky enough to be able to catch the first 5 "Pahilya Manache" Ganesh in procession this year. Below are some snaps of the interesting traditional festivities carried on in the procession. 


 The roads were adorned by beautiful colorful  rangolis. Some so huge, they covered the entire chowk...
 Here comes the first Ganesh - Kasaba Ganapati - The Gram Daivat (City Deity) of Pune ... in full welcome sounds of the 'Tutari'





This is the actual Deity, which is taken out for this procession in a Palkhi. There is a huge crowd gathered for darshan .. The air's full of  "Ganapati Bappa Morya" and "Pudhachya varshi lavkar ya" shouts.
 The atmosphere is so charged and with the sounds of Dhol and Tashe its an amazing feeling ... :)
 






The second Ganesha, Tambadi Jogeshwari, is famous for its procession which has a majority of the ladies participating. They enact traditional ladies songs and dances in the procession. They also showcase the brave women warriors of Maharashtra.








The 3 Ganesha - Guruji Talim and 4th Ganesha - Tulsi baugh mandal too put up a grand show with amazing dhol-tasha pathak. There were other interesting performances like dancing horse, kids dancing the flags, lezim performances etc.



The 5th Ganesha - Kesariwada represents the Ganapati mandal from Lokmanya Tilak's residence in Pune - the kesariwada.They had a dhol-tasha pathak with major participation from girls and kids. Their enthusiasm and energy was really contiguous. 

The whole procession runs for almost 2 days. It starts with these first 5 "Pahilya Manache" Ganesh and ends with the famous Dagadushet Ganapati or known as "Shevatchya Manache" Ganesh. 
Its going to be 2 week lull before we start on another happy celebration of the Navratri and Durga pooja. Waiting for the festivities to begin ... yet again ... :)



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tarkarli - Visit Guide

Image
I had collected this information from various reviews on the internet. Added finer details after I actually visited the place in Oct 2010. How to Reach : Tarkarli is 5 kms from Malvan. Route 1 – Pune – Kolhapur - via Radhanagari ghat – Malvan - Tarkarli Picturesque route, radhanagari dam backwaters on the way. Road is deserted and lonely but entirely through forest area and very scenic. Risky if traveling at evening/night time as there is no help nearby in case of any kind of emergencies. Not much traffic Route 2 – Pune – Kolhapur -  via Gaganbawda ghat – Malvan - Tarkarli More traffic compared to radhanagari route. Goes through several small villages on the way hence not too risky but less beautiful compared to radhanagari. We were able to visit ‘gul’ (jaggery) making outlets on this way and were able to see the complete process, eat the fresh prepared gul and buy some as well. What to do : Beach : Tarkarli beach Nearby beaches like devbag beach and chivla beach. Boat ri...
Read more

Mahabaleshwar in rains!! ...

Image
Mahabaleshwar is a beautiful hill station in western Maharashtra about 120Kms from Pune. It can be visited almost round the year as it is popular in summers because of it's cool weather and popular in winters because of strawberries which grow in abundance in the nearby areas. We visited Mahabaleshwar in July 2012 and although it was raining, the place did not disappoint us. Soon as you enter panchgani, you are almost travelling through clouds. And they remain all the time in Mahabaleshwar. The Pasarani ghats which end in panchgani when you are travelling from Pune are amazingly beautiful and more so in the rains with seasonal waterfalls around. We started from Pune after a nice breakfast on a Sunday morning. Although the city and plains were dry, it started raining soon as we entered the hilly ghat area around. The road from Pune was really in a mint good condition which was a pleasant surprise given the usual state of roads here. Panchgani is like a twin hill station whic...
Read more

DIY ... Diya painting

Image
Painted Diyas make a very apt Diwali gift. Tried it myself this year and it has turned out really amazing. Here is the plan ... Requirements :  Diyas afcourse ... :) You get them in variety of shapes and sizes in the market. When bought in bulk they come really cheap.  Primer and thinner - this is for a white colored base coat. Colors - base colors would be the usual fabric colors. For detailing, you can select tube colors including sparklers for really good effects. Brushes - larger ones for the coat and base paint. Thinner ones for detailing. For the finishing touches - plastic sheet, different colored satin ribbons and stock paper to make tags Small decorative stick-ons, colored pens et al for decorating the tags. Preparations : Dip the earthen diyas in a bucket of water and keep them overnight. After removing them from water, keep them to dry in sun if possible for a couple of days. Start with the base coat. For this we use the primer directly on the ...
Read more