Stories, photographs and thoughts from a travelling couple taking walks and mapping their routes, while backpacking around India, and parts of the world.
What started out as an ordinary evening of grocery shopping in Mapusa got completely hijacked by a beautiful display of fireworks, loud music and an assault of bright lights in the distance. We decided to investigate and landed up in the colourful and chaotic Mapusa market, where the Ganesh idol, erected by the merchants of Mapusa, was being taken on a procession before its immersion. I had almost forgotten it was Visarjan (Immersion) Day, that falls on the 11th day of the Ganesh Chaturthi festivities.
Coming from Hyderabad, I was used to all the grand displays and fanfare leading up to the Ganesh Visarjan, when thousands and thousands of idols would be immersed in the Tank Bund. But in Goa, you don’t see a Ganesh idol on every street and things are less loud and ostentatious. So just when I thought the Ganesh Chaturthi festivities has passed us by for the year, we ended up getting a glimpse of the Ganesh mania in the Mapusa market. There were explosions in the sky. There was a brass band from Belgaum performing to ‘Lungi Dance’ with the same enthusaism with which they belted out a Ganesh ballad. There was a gathering crowd — All the ingredients of India’s famous public display of devotion!
Share the love
If you liked what you just read, share it with your friends, family, dentist, parish priest, bookie and CA.