9.9.9

In one of my earlier videos you can see the beginning stages of ganesh chaturthi. The observation of this holiday just ended after ten nights. I had hoped to visit the final festivities of ganesh chaturthi and capture it in pictures and video, as it turned out I was not able to do so. A series of events and circumstances delayed my journey to the reservoir where I was hoping to see people immersing their ganesh idols in Rajkot’s water supply. As I approached the reservoir on what is normally a quiet dirt road I passes many cars filled with people leaving the reservoir. When I finally got there it was dark and there were a couple of large tour busses who had brought observers from great distances to participate. I was rather annoyed at this point because it wasn’t light enough to capture this event on camera.

I would like to pause here to give you an idea of how my perception and attitude has changed in the three weeks that I have been here. A past Fulbrighter told me “There is nothing like that first walk through a new place that you will get to know well. I love the first impression of a new city and how it can never be recaptured.” She was right, by now the once strange and exciting sights are becoming commonplace. If you were to graph the number of pictures of cows in the middle of the road that I have taken over time, you would see a marked decrease. Now days I won’t even take my camera out of my pocket unless there are at least 15 cows in the road. I would say I am becoming accustomed to but still not comfortable with my surroundings. When I first arrived I was amazed and even amused by the amount of horns being blown, the ever present divine bovine, and the treasure hunt that was involved in finding even the simplest items. Now, only three short weeks later these same things are beginning to wear on me. Yesterday while driving someone was beeping off of my 4 o’clock, just beeping and beeping and beeping. I finally slowed down and he pulled next to me, an older gent with his wife sitting side saddle (both of them staring at me) beeping. I yelled, “What?” like what on earth could be so important that you insist on beeping 200 times a minute. That was a stupid question; because the answer was nothing. There was nothing to beep at, just muscle memory I suppose. I’m upset with myself for getting annoyed this past week my patience has grown short several times. I still do not have internet in my apartment and I am not sure if I ever will. Things are often times more complicated than they need to be, but the problem is not India it’s me. I’m the one who needs to change my attitude, so what if I don’t have internet, neither do most people. Someone in my cohort said that an Indian Woman she works with told her “you can’t be rational in India” I liked my friend’s saying better, “India happens”.

So I witnessed the tail end of the event (pun intended) when in the waning daylight I was able to watch a group of forty or so people submerse there elephant headed idol in the reservoir. There was loud song and prayers, people covered in colorful powders, truck beds full of speakers, and of course, fireworks. It was great to witness this first hand, sorry about the lack of photos. When you get a chance Google images of ganesh chaturthi, wild!