Gajamukhane Ganapathi ye ninage vandane....Sharanu sharanayya sharanu benaka....

These were the words of songs I used to hear as a kid growing up in Bangalore during Ganesha habba and guess what - this year, I actually played it on my laptop (when I discovered they have all the favorite ganesha festival songs on www.udbhava.com) during Ganesha Chaturthi yesterday.

Given - I didnt buy a mud idol of Ganesha that was painted bright colors and a small idol of Gowri to sit alongside or draw big rangolis in front of my house. I did not make modakas or kadubus. I didnt go to a few neighbors' houses to take a look at how much more beautifully they had decorated their Ganesha idol or how much bigger the idol was compared to what I had at home (tiny detail of being one of the only Indians living in this townhome complex) BUT I celebrated the festival nevertheless. Especially since it was the first time I celebrated a festival after I bought my own place.

I arranged a couple paintings of Ganesha and a brass idol thats been one of my favorite possessions for a while now on one of the end tables that I converted to a makeshift peetha for my fav deity. I decorated them with chrysanthamum flowers and lit a couple brass lamps. I even had yele adikke, harishina kumkuma, fruits and akshathe kaalu sitting in plates. The garike hullu came straight from a neatly trimmed yard in front my garage! The rangoli on the peetha - I drew with rice flour but I cant really say that it was great. Yet it made me feel so good that I was actually able to do something mom seems to do so effortlessly all the time.

I made puliyogre, shavige paayasa, kadale husuli (basically what I heard mom made back in Bangalore except the yummy vadas and kadubus - yeah took the slacker way out). Kept the offerings in front of Him and prayed to grant health, wellbeing and happiness to my family and friends. A friend of mine had come over and then of course - we pigged out on all that food :) because that's what a festival is all about right?

Celebrating the festival made me so nostalgic and remember all the times we had armies of little kids holding akshathe in their hands, come over to our house asking - 'Aunty Ganesha koodsidira??' and trying to compete with each other to see who would see the most number of Ganesha idols. Oh I so missed the colorful pandals that come up so quickly at every street corner with 5 ft plus Ganesha idols sitting inside and loudspeakers blaring 'Gajamukhane Ganapathi ye ninage vandane....Sharanu sharanayya sharanu benaka....'