Ganesha Immersion 2011-Photo essay

 

An organic ganesha, kept by a family, for its worship, before it is handed over to the immersion ground crew for its final journey. Organic ganeshas have been catching up, with lot of awareness of toxic waste and the impact these ganesha's immersed in our lakes make. Organic ganeshas are environmental friendly, so you can be rest assured that your celebration, is doing no harm to anyone down the line.

 

 A crew member, who works on the ganeshas to be loaded in the crain, looks on. The bigger ganeshas are put together, in a waiting area. Once the load is ready for the crain, the ganeshas are lifted on a platform and then immersed into the water. The activity over the years, by bringing in these control, has become very neat. The individual devotees are not allowed to enter the water bed, hence maintains lot of cleanliness, and everything happens in a controlled manner.

Ulsoor lake,(actual name as HALASUR) has also enjoyed a better state, with Madras sappers, an army battalion located at it, which maintains and uses the lake for all their activities. in recent past also, when lot of damage has been done to the lake due to various activities, army unit has always pitched in, and made efforts to keep it clean. With awareness and change in way ganeshas are immersed, things are much better than what they were 5 years back.

A lifesize ganesha idol, blessing. the artists work very hard, and give a lot of attention on the color combination, accessories to be denoted and the dressing. all of these aspects also decide the pricing ranges of these various ganeshas.

Close up of a ganeshas idol. AN idol waits for its turn for immersions.

Immersion team. A set of young guys, who line up for their turns to immerse ganeshas. Devotees, are not allowed to get into the water, hence all the praying and puja is done from the fence. from there on, the idol is handed over to these people. they immerse the ganeshas and collect little fee for that. Good part was, that these people maintain discipline, and make a line and address devotees in serial order. The sheer enthusiasm of their, didnt go down, even when i told them, that i wasn't from any newspaper.

Two of the immersion team members, pose and also wonder, which newspaper i was coming from. if not from newspaper, then why would i be clicking them.

An immersion team member, climbs down to the water bed, after being handed over the Ganesha.

While the ganesha gets taken down to the water for immersion(its journey), devotees, bid adieu with their wishes and hope to see them again next year.

Immersion team member, drop the ganesha in water for two times and pulls it back showing it to the devotee, and then finally lets it go the third time the water.

And with that, comes to end the journey of keeping ganeshas and then immersing them. as per hindu rituals, bringing home and keeping ganesha is a sign of prosperity. Ganesha, also known as "vighn-hartha"( means remover of troubles) being at home, means who takes away all pains and troubles of its devotees.God is then let go, with a hope that they will come back to the devotees household and bless them with prosperity and take away their troubles.