Ganesh Chaturthi Celebration @ Sobha Palladian 2 Sept 2019

वक्रतुण्ड महाकाय सूर्यकोटि समप्रभ ।
निर्विघ्नं कुरु मे देव सर्वकार्येषु सर्वदा ॥
Vakra-Tunndda Maha-Kaaya Suurya-Kotti Samaprabha |
Nirvighnam Kuru Me Deva Sarva-Kaaryessu Sarvadaa ||

Meaning:
1: (Salutations to Sri Ganesha) Who has a Curved Trunk, Who has a Large Body and Whose Splendour is similar to Million Suns; 
2: O Deva, Please Make my Undertakings Free of Obstacles, By extending Your Blessings in All my Works, Always.


Ganesh Chaturthi  also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi  is a popular festival celebrating the arrival of Ganesha on earth from Mt. Kailash with his mother goddess Gauri.
The festival celebrates Lord Ganesha as the God of New Beginnings and the Remover of Obstacles as well as the god of wisdom and intelligence.
and if i recall my history correctly, it was our nationalist and freedom fighter Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak who turned the private, household Ganesh Chathurthi celebration into the present 10 - day carnival.  And he brought the various sects of HIndus and the brahmins and the non brahmins  to come together and celebrate this festival in a grand manner.

We too at Sobha Palladian celebrated Vinayaka Chaturthi in a memorable way.!

This Blog is inspired by the fantastic photographs taken by Manoj and the enthusiasm and actions captured in all those frames. And the interesting conversations over the Whats App group by the many volunteers.

Sadly I was down with fever ant could not participate in this event. But that does not stop me from giving all folks who missed this event a short recap of the celebrations. 

Satyendra Pradhan was a very busy man. Two days before the event I could see him crisscrossing the fountain lawns, talking to many people, inspecting the clubhouse and planning this mega event. He was the prime mover and the driving force. And along with Srini and Jayashree they put up a wonderful show on 2 Sept 2019!!

Ramya set up a new Whats App group, Ganesha Volunteers and within minutes it was flooded with folks happy and eager & willing to pitch in!

Yes we quickly had many ladies coning forth to make prasad for the morning Puja ceremony and also a lot more prasads for the evening function. 

and the Rangoli team presented their design.

and the SP Music Club came up with  what they planned to sing

And Lakshmi designed and fabricated a nice silver wrapped Hundi for donation collections!! 

and Satyen came up with brilliant idea to put together a few scaffolding rods to construct a shelter under which Lord Ganesha would be installed!!

And Shwetha would get the kids to do a Skit 

And Krati wanted to conduct a Ganesha Clay modelling workshop

and the list goes on...

Ganesha Sthapna and Pooja     

Drawing Competition for the Kids !!

Amazing concentration....

And finally Ganesha came in all sizes and shapes..

Preparing the modelling clay.. Its a sticky business !!!

and Krathi conducting the Ganesha Clay Modelling Workshop..

Now What ??

And the wonderful Ganeshas and the winners !!!

And adding some glitter to to the evening's proceedings

The SP Music Club In Action with an enthralled audience  !

And Lord Shiva and Parvati take the stage..

and these kids came up wilt a brilliant performance of the famous Narad Muni's  Mango story.

And it brought back nostalgic memories of this same skit exactly 30 years back in New Delhi. My Daughter, all of 5 years acted as Parvati  in this same skit. And some aunty had generously dabbed a few layers of pink lip gloss. And throughout that evening she had kept her lips pouted like a fish!! And she threw a tantrum when we tried to wipe it off before dinner !!

And Ganesha wins the race & the Mango !!

 And finally the Visarjan ..

  

Ganpati Bappa Morya,          

Pudhcha Varshi Loukar Ya.

And quoting a message from  Satyendra Pradhan... 

Dear Team members,I got so many compliments & blessings from many elderly peoples .Entire credit for successful event goes to my team members specially Sini & Jayshree .

The dedication & energy level of Ayantika  & Laxmi is superb.

At last Our Great Dear Natraj & his team made the evening memorable.

In short time ,skit item & quiz added the beauty in show .

All others equally contributed to made the program memorable.

At Last Ritu ,

Without her support & guidance moving ahead was very difficult.My sincere thanks to her .

Thanks to kids & all other

I forgotten to thanks to Madam Kriti Mishra for arranging clay ‘Ganesha ‘making class ,Manoj for conducting drawing competition,Madam Mohana for beautiful rangoli & at last Shreya & Vipin for physical support for conducting programme .My Thanks

and Thanks to You Sr, for your initiative and leadership!

Krish..