Jai Ganesh

Hi Kapus,

Back in late 1960s or early 1970s, when Abu was very young he had a spate of accidents. There were also other weird incidents which occurred causing some misfortune to the Shanbhag family. However, according to what i was told, on one ocassion, Abu fell while playing and fractured his left hand and the bone protruded out like little tusks

My Amma, Abu's mother, got a vision that night that it was Ganpati baba telling her that he wanted to visit the Shanbhag household and thus started a rich tradition of hosting and celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi every year and this year, last month, we took you to Mumbai to celebrate exactly that

The whole Shanbhag family was present this year (after a very long time) and it was also the first year that we moved away from the traditional plastic murthi to a more eco-friendly but beautiful Panchdattu murthi   

Here is the 2015 version of Ganpati:

 

and here is the 2023 version: 

And while you mostly just fooled around with Ahana (as expected), there were a few moments worth capturing 

- You sitting for Satyanarayan puja with Abu and Amma

- You meeting your cousin Nupur and Mohit after a long time

and the one I would treasure the most

- Nitin kaka telling you the Amar Chitra Katha story of Ganpati, which you listened to queitly for over 20 minutes and then loved it so much that I had to repeat it to you as you night time story for the rest of the week

You may not remember this first Ganpati as you grow older, but hoping this post will help refresh some memories


Cheers

Dadoo

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