Shadoo Ganapati ...

It was that time of the year again. Festivities aloom and the usual gaga gogoo on the streets raging in all blast and vigor. But no! NO no ... doubly no! Not this year.. it was all mellowed down. The city was gripped in one tough situation with the epidemic on the loose... that had all Puneiets behind closed doors, all shopkeepers had their shutters down, the city administration was planning on a total shutdown of the city (City under quarantine!). It was unbelievable, in a matter of a couple of weeks and some blaring media reports the city civic officials were forced to pull up the red flag. Swine Flu had the whole city in its grip.

But it was the "Shravan mahina" and this the season of festivals... lakshmi pooja, gokulashtami, ganesh chaturti etc. etc. Ganesh Chaturti! - the festival that had me and still keeps me smiling on its advent. But this time around, the influenza scare had all the hulla gulla mellowed down.

We planned on buying on buying an Eco-friendly Ganesha idol this time around. Wify and me did some research and finally got to know from Rahul that we could purchase very good "Shadoo Ganapatis"(Ganapati idols made from mud) from near Rastapeth. We decided on visiting the place a week before the festival and place an order for the same, if we like an idol.

The shop was small, but was full of idols. It had both POP(Plaster of Paris) and "shaadoo" idols. The owner directed us inside the shop to a room where he had numerous idols of various shapes and sizes, most of which were made of "shaadoo". Rahul and both of us instantly liked one of the Ganashea's with a Tanaji turban (It was called "Jai Malhaar"). But it was too big so we decided on looking at other smaller idols... These idols looked really wonderful, but most of them were booked. A couple of idols which we liked were gone too.

After some hunting, both of us zeroed in on an idol that was not brightly colored - but had a uniform brownish color. It looked beautiful. We decided to do more research before finalizing on one.

Back at Rahul's house for the second hunt round, this time around we paraded various shops in the Rastapeth area with Rahul's mom. None of the shops had very attractive idols. After much hunting we returned back to our Shop no.1.

In 10 minutes we had ourselves booked the uniformly brownish painted Ganesha idol. We both loved it- it was pleasing and had a wonderful presence. Like Rahul's mom said "You guyz already had your eyes on this one... so none of the rest appealed to you". But these words were going to recoil back , as Rahul was very insistent on getting the "Jai Malhaar" idol.

The next ~1.5 hrs were spent scanning each and every idol in the shop. Every idol looked beautiful, all the brownish idols appealed to me ;). Every time we selected an idol, there would be some doubts and we would again consider the "Jai Malahar". It was tiring, but a lot of fun! The basic issue was the size and the turban on the idol :).

Eventually after a lot of head hunting and help from the shopkeeper Rahul booked his "Jai Malhaar"! It was an all successful shopping spree... all owners were returning back happy.

Took some pics and showed our folks back home... they liked our choice... (It was right sized and did not have the turban ..hahaa ). We would be getting our idol a day before the festival... so 'am really looking forward to this year’s Eco friendly H1N1 mellowed down festival!