The month that was : September
by Radhika G
My September
Sept 1st was a thursday. It was also Ganesh Chaturthi. This day marks the beginning of the 10 day long Ganesh Festival that is celebrated throughout the state of Maharashtra. It is said that in Mumbai, this festival is celebrated with extreme enthusiasm and zeal. There are pandals erected at every cross-roads and huge idols of Ganesh are displayed often in elaborate settings. The decorations and themes are planned months in advance. There are citywide competitions for the same with big fat cheques as prizes. I personally wonder whether there is any need for this festival to be celebrated in such a manner. The purpose of celebrating this festival so publicly is long lost behind the glitter and glamour.
I travelled home to Nashik on Thursday morning. My family was waiting for me to begin the festivities. K and I had selected a lovely Ganesh idol and Baba (my father-in-law) performed the pooja while Aai (my mother-in-law) and I cooked up the feast. Lord Ganesh is always accompanied by his 2 sisters and a baby. These ‘sisters’ also known as Gauri / Mahalaxmi arrive a couple of days later and usually stay for 3 days. Preparing for their arrival, decorating their abode, dressing them in gorgeous silk sarees and gold jewelry, takes up almost all the time one has. We (my sister-in-law, Trupti and I) decided to create a garden swing for them and proceeded to spend most of Friday and Saturday in doing that. In between the cutting, gluing, wrapping, sticking, pinning and tying, we helped Aai make challis and shankar-pale. That’s the best part of all the Indian festivals, lots and lots of yummy food!! Sunday was spent in some more cooking and making sure that our swing set holds up. And it did!
Though Monday and Tuesday were important days of the festivals, I had to be back in office Monday as we were leaving for the Kyoorius Designyatra conference, in Goa, on Thursday morning. This was a graphic design conference that I had been wanting to attend for the last couple of years. And the best part was that our office had registered us for this 2 day event. More on this in another post. We were scheduled to leave on thursday morning 8th sept. The conference was to be held on 9th and 10th. But the week before that the Konkan Railways were experiencing delays due to landslides. We at the last minute decided to travel by a late night train departing on Wednesday. We reached Goa on thursday evening after a long train ride and spent the weekend listening to international designers and artists. It was a thoroughly enlightening experience.
We returned to Mumbai on Monday morning and headed straight to work.The following 2 weeks were quite uneventful… And then came my big day!
My 25th birthday! Luckily it was a Friday and I could spend it with my family. K and my mum had planned a big dinner with all my extended family. They really made it quite special for me with all the champagne and dinner! Also the next day, K whisked me away to Beyond Sula Resort for some alone time. With all my crazy traveling and family commitments, there is hardly anytime left for us to spend with each-other. So this surprise felt so good. A day for just the 2 of us, away from everything else. We spent the day chit-chatting, drinking wine, playing pool and scrabble, eating fabulous food and ended the perfect day watching a movie… Was the perfect birthday celebration.
I have to move out of my hostel at the end of October. So I started looking for apartments during the week following my birthday.
And before I knew it, September was over…
