Ganesh Chaturthi - 2023 - the year of God of Wisdom gave me Self Care Wisdom

 Things that will go wrong, most obviously go wrong, but our lives keep moving forward like the cycle of seasons from one year to the next. At anytime, if we sit down quietly for 10 minutes, we can figure out so many things we would’ve done differently and our lives would’ve turned out better than it is right now - may be more glitz or glamour, more money, bigger house, a successful career or kids not missing out on opportunities that they did miss because of oversight or undersight, long - sight, short - sight (ahhhhhhh)...the list is just too long and thoughts and doubts too many. 

This is when, I switch to Youtube University or Insta College for inspiration, motivation or recommendation (or any other tion that exists out there) - daily struggles of a by choice home - maker and stay at home mom. And as I turned around to switch on the fan, I tripped over my son’s scooty - so as to remind me that I need to get him to understand about cleaning up after playing (sigh). So, getting back to my earlier point of finding “the tions” - I have realised that it only works if you have the most important ingredient in you “Inner Peace”.

When you are truly at peace, then you can filter out all the noise on any of these research platforms and get exactly what you want. The Internet is a powerful tool, but only if you know how to use it efficiently, else it is a waste of time as there is always a data traffic jam, just like my writing so far, as it’s not tied into the title of this post. So, here we go, after that loooooong introduction - I found that inner peace exists only if you fully take the control of your emotions and state of mind from everyone’s hands and firmly grab into yours, and Ganapati festival this year (2023) has become special for me for this reason.

A bihari household trying to celebrate a Marathi festival, the way it is done in Maharashtra - that was an interesting experience. Ganesh Chaturthi, traditionally, for Biharis has just been about celebrating that one day after Teej with lots of lovely vegetarian food and modak or ladoo as prasad after Ganesh pooja. My kids, this year, ensured that I get an opportunity to fulfil my wish of celebrating it with a little pomp and show and longer than 1 day. And they held my hand, every step of the way. I have been a mom and home - maker for quite some time, so mommy things come very naturally to me, but “my age things” - not so much, though it should - that’s what my daughter says to me. Everytime, she asks me about my hopes and dreams - I really have to dig deeper to get the answer, probably because moms get programmed to think that it's selfish (it's not), but I know how much of an effort it is to convince myself otherwise.

Sooooooo, coming back from the tangent, the whole idea of celebration was quite daunting, as I had no clue about how to go about it. First, I decided on the “No pictures, No Insta, FB” approach. This instantly took the pressure off grand celebrations or celebrating in a certain way. Second, I decided to do only the absolute essential things, as that is the real me. Third, was divine intervention. This is when I felt that if we take the first 2 steps towards our goal, the third step is made clear by God or any supreme power you believe in. Co - incidentally had to cancel a Ganesh Modelling class for kids, before Ganesh Chaturthi because something came up and rescheduled for Ganesh Chaturthi. Got over my fear of driving through the city on Ganesh Chaturthi, thinking there will be a lot of traffic - made me understand the celebration a little better. So, kids made their own bappa statues and brought him home on Ganesh Chaturthi. The next 4 days of pooja got done with a few “time glitches” - in terms of arti time, bhog time and stuff. But, I kept telling myself not to hyper - ventilate and enjoy myself, as that is the most important part of this celebration. We did Visarjan today, and as I finish my article -  I am already thinking about Durga Puja and Deepavali - reminding myself to enjoy this moment.

My favourite part of the day was when kids did the Visarjan of their statues - felt like a guest had come and left and now will only come next year. Truly, in my heart I felt a bit emotional, and awaiting Ganesh Pooja next year - 

गणपती बाप्पा मोरया , पुढच्या वर्षी लवकर या