Ganesh Chaturthi

On September 22, 2010, the Ganesh Chachurti Immersion took place. For those of you who don’t know about Indian festivals, Ganesh Chachurti is a time when all over the city one can find idols of Lord Ganesha. After about eleven days from the start of the festival, they immerse the idols in the lake or any nearby water body. This festival is especially popular in places like Mumbai and Hyderabad. In fact, I think this is Hyderabad’s biggest festival. Of course it does cause a lot of pollution, considering the mere number of idols which are thrown into the lake and other water bodies. In some cities people have started using eco-friendly idols, but I haven’t seen Hyderabadies doing anything of the sort. I do hope soon they wake up and realize.

Now I’ve been living in Hyderabad for quite a long time, but it never occurred to me to actually go to Hussain Sagar and see the immersion for myself. Nor am I religious in any way, so I just never thought of finding out how it is celebrated. I didn’t even know that it would be such a big event! Of course for photography purposes, I went out there with my friends, and we took a huge number of photographs, mostly for the purpose of making a video out of them. We saw over a thousand Ganesh Idols, and we took over 4750 photographs! Out of those, many have come out too blurry, due to not setting the camera settings properly. Was awesome fun though. I will never forget the crowd, and the fun filled faces. At times the crowd became a little rowdy, but well nothing that we couldn’t get far away from.

It was a little tough finding good locations to take photographs. A few times my friend climbed onto cranes to take them (once I did too), and we had to lie through our teeth about being from a news channel. One of the places where we set up, a couple of guys came along and one shouted “Hey Pink Floyd, (I was wearing a Pink Floyd t-shirt) are you here for your hobby purpose or are you a professional?” I didn’t know what to reply, so my friend cut in and told him we’re professionals. I felt awful for lying though, as we didn’t need to lie to him. He somehow managed to get shots too though, so I guess all worked out at the end.

One time I almost got beaten up by a Police for trying to pass under the rope (but some other Police had given me permission). This was quite an experience, and an unforgettable one at that! Well, such expeditions are always fun, just hope they keep coming my way. Enjoy the photographs (apologies but they aren’t as good as they should be), many of them don’t directly have anything to do with the Ganesh Festival, but I feel they are essential in portraying the festival.

Note: Not all these photographs were taken by me.  Many were taken by my friend, Nayan. I don’t even remember properly who took which photographs.