Ganesh Chathurthi

A trip to Birmingham:
On Saturday the 3 of us readied ourselves for our first ever long journey in the new BMW - a visit to the famous Balaji temple in Dudley. It is the biggest hindu temple in the UK. We had arranged for an abhishekam that morning around 10AM. So we left home around 7:45. The drive took us around 2 hours - we would have reached faster had itn ot been for the road works and the slow speed zone for quite a distance. Fifteen minutes on the road and Aditi wanted to get down or go to her nursery and be deposited with her keyworker. She did not like being tied down to the carseat and we sang many nursery rhymes to keep her busy. She insisted on sitting on my lap, which was forbidden anyway by lay in this country. She tried to sleep but the morning sun kept disturbing her! We reached exactly two hours after we left, made our way to the reception,completed formalities and payments and went upstairs to the actual sannidhi. The curtain was drawn, so we had a quick darshan of the other dieties and sat down for the curtain to rise. Aditi was extrememly excited with the darshan of monkey-god. She's been watching Ramayan on NDTV Imagine and is very fond of Hanuman. The abhishekam started around 10am and Aditi kept asking various questions while each liquid was being poured. She looked at the idol who was well oiled and said - 'Swami crying' - The oil appeared so to her and she wanted to know why Swami was crying. She wanted to have milk when the paal abhishekam was performed. She patiently waited until all the abhishekams were performed. And enjoyed placing flowers near the kumbham. While we waited for the Lord to be decorated, we went around the other dieties - Ganesha, Muruga and Navagraha temples. We were fortunate to also take part in the Vishwa Santhi homam and perform Deepa pooja for world peace. Aditi and I made a quick trip to the car for a snack and we all went back to the main temple for the Managala arthi. The place was extremely crowded, being a saturday and after the arthi, we got special abhishekam prasadam and more laddus for friends and neighbours.There's a little tent behind the main temple where lunch is served on saturdays. Here we met one of my college mates, who volunteers at the temple every week. He recognized me and we quickly exchanged contact details. Aditi enjoyed the lunch - rice, sambar, moong curry and kesari. We posed for a few pictures near the ranganathar temple, where a fountain has been set up. Had a quick tea at the famous Dosa stall and started our drive backhome. Aditi slept throughout the journey, which meant I enjoyed the ride back, listening to old time classics on the iPod.
Ganesh Chathurthi:We went shopping for groceries late on saturday night and returned with three bags of goodies. After sorting them all out and cutting veggies for the next morning, I quickly decided on the menu. We had invited a couple of people over for lunch on sunday. I got started on the lunch preprations after sorting out breakfast and before nine am was done with most part of the cooking. Then came the cleaning. Prashanth joined in and we made the house look presentable. After a quick shower, I proceeded to arrange the pooja with all my Ganesh murthis. Prashanth gave Aditi her shower and they chose a pink and purple dress to wear for the occassion. We also celebrate Gowri puja, a practise I started only five years ago and Aditi happily helped me pick flowers from the garden and place it(Well, she played with the rose petals dipping them in water). We then tied the sacred yellow thread and I recited a few slokas. Then comes Ganesh pooja. We took a little break, I started making the modaks(which unfortunately did not turn out as nice as they did last year!) and we offered the same to Ganesha. All done and ready by 1, we waited for our guests to arrive. They made us wait longer than expected and arrived fianlly by 2:30pm.I gave Aditi her lunch and we finally had ours around 3pm. Too late by our standards... Anyway we had a nice time until about 5 pm and they left home. Aditi was excited to have people around her and wanted to know why the aunty could not stay with us for ever. She went off to play on her bicycle later with her two older friends who live in the same estate.