First thing that caught our fancy during the Ganpati festival in the very year of our arrival in Mumbai was the adoration and respect bestowed upon the elephant god by anointing him as king of the area where the community pandal was put up to celebrate the 10 days festival. Of course, thanks to Bollywood and Mumbai’s numero uno place among the cities in India, we had an inkling of the grandeur and scale of the festival and had also heard about the very special status enjoyed by Lalbaug cha Raja amongst all the deities. But to come across various Rajas – Andheri cha, Juhu cha, Malad cha, Fort cha etc was the most fascinating experience.
Our daughter, a denizen of Johannesburg, came to know through local Indian diaspora about Ganpati festival being celebrated at one of the local temples. Over the weekend, she along with her family joined the celebration that included exhibition and various other programmes, including rendition of bhajans, the devotional songs. The climax of this very enjoyable and pious evening was delicious Prasad, the theme for the day being Marwari food, including dal- baati, churma. She also came to know that previous day cuisine was Gujarati while for the subsequent day, Marathi food was planned. Over 10 days of festivities, Temple has been celebrating by serving cuisine of one of the Indian states as Prasad.
While all the above was a great experience for my daughter for reliving the Mumbai and India’s experience, my joy knew no bounds when she told me that Ganpati idol installed there is being named as Johannesburg cha Raja! Mumbai, Maharashtra and India are Lord Ganpati’s domain; but when this popular God reaches far flung geographies to spread happiness amongst his devotees, it’s simply ecstatic!
Ganpati Bappa Morya! Johannesburg Cha Raja ki Jai!
Arvind Arya blog 