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Ganesh Factory

Here we are, it is the end of the harvest, the beginning of the festivities. When the rain will stop it and then we will fully enjoy!!

We entered the Ganapati time, the festival of Ganesh which I am quite familiar with nowll! (see http://www.indiansamourai.com/search/ganesh ).

And this year, while going to see the Krishna celebrations, I discovered a Ganesh workshop near Elphinston station. And not just any Ganesh, giant ones, those of the temples.

Simply impressive…

Ganapati preparations, Mumbai - Août 2011

09/01/2011 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Every year I go see Ganesh departure in the sea… (The idea here is that Ganesh, the God with an elephant head, comes in people’s homes every year and after a couple of days (up to 10) he leaves, carrying everbody’s sins with him in the purifying water.)

But for the first time I went at night on the main day of immersion…

Walking home took me two hours. Partly because it was overcrowded (especially Juhu Tara Road where all the processions happen) and partly because I was so busy filming!

It was amazing to see the joy, the fervour, the passion!

People also kept coming to my mini video camera and smiled and sang.

My ass got groped only twice which is a performance seeing the number of people gathered…

A truly energising and incredible experience!

Pictures of my previous Ganapati festivals are here.

Here is the short version (10 min) of the 2 hours of shooting I did:

And here the long (30 minute) version!

09/24/2013 | Permalink

Give to God, God will give you back...

Seen at Bombay store counter in Mumbai international airport… I was struggling to find change and was seriously tempted to borrow some from Ganesh…

Ganesh idol on a counter; the most efficient manner to collect money – forget the boxes for the poor…

02/02/2012 | Permalink

Ganapati and the elephantastic noise

It has been 9 years that Ganesh festival was impressing my eyes (see previous notes); now it mostly impresses my ears!

Below is the typical musical scene I face when going home. And also once I am home, sound-proofing not being a forte of Indian houses.

Every year millions of Ganesh idols, the God with an elephant head, are put into water, taking off with him the sins of the poor mortals. The latter spending fortunes(yes yes, even poor people invest a lot. Especially the poor in fact) to have the best looking (or most impressive) Ganesh of the neighbourhood. And to let everybody know about it - the most effective way being using huge speakers and playing techno music full fledge.

On top of aggressing ears, the festival makes me feel bad, personally. It is so bad for the environment, these tons of Plaster of Paris (which does not dissolve at all even after 48 hours, unlike clay (source)) and heavily toxic paints thrown in the sea every year…

But let us be positive! There are some good initiatives bringing hope. Immersing the idols in tanks instead of rivers. The chocolate statue drown in milk and distributed to poor children. The Ganesh made out of fish food with natural paints made out of spices. So of course it creates metaphysical problems, and the religious experts have been debatting about the future of the immersed Ganapatis. Ending up in a landfill? In the digestive system of fishes? Or in the tummy of poor kids? Is it religiously correct? I have obviously no theological expertise but ending up as trash rejected by the sea is not the sexiest thing either!

Sources:http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/pune/pune-all-fiv...; http://www.sakaaltimes.com/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsId=569081... ; http://www.storypick.com/ganesh-idols/; http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-chocolate-ganesh-creates-a-buzz-on-social-media-2126669

09/28/2015 | Permalink

Comment book - Fanny

“India, I got to know it a bit. I travelled there three times. She is repulsing and attracting. She is a mystery. A wave of magic carries this country. The Ganesh statues in the street, the beggars who harass you, the rickshaw drivers who rip you off, the slums at the bottom of big buildings, the children who smile at you and touch you like if you were a star.

I got to know this country in her purest form in the villages, with the softness of their inhabitants full of a breathtaking kindness, and in her ugliest form in the economic capital where everything is only about contrasts. This country is the mirror of the Human being, there is the worse as well as the best.”

Fanny M., 12/09/2011, Travel in August 2001 (Rajasthan), volunteering in 2008 (Pune), internship for 4 months in 2010 (Mumbai)

09/24/2011 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Why in India fat guys have the paunch of a pregnant woman?

I've always wondered whether it was only in my head or the belly of paunchy Indians had a special shape. To put it simply, they look like pregnant women. It also happens to quite a few Indian women past their fifties (which makes me wonder every time I meet one “isn’t she too old to be pregnant?”).

With a little research I found out that it is not only in India that overweight men are more apple-shaped than pear-shaped (a female prerogative)!

Some people are more prone to accumulate visceral fat that grows deep in the abdomen and around the organs which gives the belly the apple shape. And others retain subcutaneous fat (under the skin) which often settles in the lower part of the body, including the hips and legs. (1)

And that would be genetic: it is not the same genes that are most active in abdominal fat and thigh fat, and the location of these genes depends on the solicitation of hormones during development. (2)

From there, it is quite possible that Indian males have a particular genetic issue, as they already have a genetic predisposition to have hairs in the ears (cf post). A certain Dr. Patel also claims that “in the United States, the accumulation of fat occurs in the whole body but in India it is centered around the belly”. (3)

But other factors can play in the advent of the appled Indian...

I thought for a moment about Zola and his Nana who was so beautiful because she was fat and fair skinned. Where a fat tummy would be a (ostentatious) sign of wealth of the man who got away from manual chores. But even poor guys often have a big paunch here (when they are not super skinny).

In India, it's too hot to work out! Indians are not sportive – 9 gold medals in 21 participations at the Olympics (4), it gives the tone! And don’t get me started with cricket... First many players are far from having the bodies of soccer players (see the picture of Dwayne Leverock, who did not hesitate to throw his 120 kilos to catch the ball during the 2007 World Cup (one of the only games I've watched and an action I will never forget!)). (5) Secondly most of the (adult) cricket fans prefer to play cricket German-style: watching it on TV!

I agree yoga was born in India. But on one hand yoga is more about feeling well in your body than getting an hourglass figure (you can just look at my yoga teacher if you need proof) and on the other hand yoga became popular in India only quite recently – after it became fashionable in the West actually! (6)

That being said, people are more and more aware of problems related to overweight, such as diabetes that affects more than 40 million Indians – here again they seem to have a local genetic predisposition for this disease (7). Hence an explosion of the number of gyms in lately: from almost none when I arrived in 2006 to thousands today. But well, only 0.23 million Indians are believed to have a gym membership... (8) So we can safely say that Indians are culturally anti-sportive!

And there is food... Traditionally Indian food is rich in carbohydrates (rice, wheat) and fats (a curry is not a curry if it is not full of butter or ghee). And on top of this Indians are fond of snacking.

And last but not least, I think that Indians do not find a big paunch unaesthetic. The dream of my ex-favourite Indian when he was a kid was to have a big tummy like his dad!

Just have a look at Ganesh and his belly (human but elephantine size!)…