India is a country of
festivals and events. The number of festivals in our country are as manyas it's language and culture.
Nowadays, in Gujarat and Maharshtra, Ganeshotsav is being celebrated with a lot of pomp and glory. I too participate with all earnest and sincerity in planning and arranging of the festival in our colony. Since five days we were all drenched with the enthusiasm that comes along with the festival. So to say, Ganshotsav lasts for full ten days but holy immersion, called ‘Gauri Ganesh Vidhi’, of small statues start on the fifth day itself. As always in our colony, the statue of Lord Ganesh was immersed with wholehearted enthusiasm. As this festival is hogging the limelight in all newspapers and media, ‘Loktej’, with its website loktej.com was showing pictures of statues lined along the shoreline which were not immersed, along with the caption ‘
celebrate festivals, but finish it completely’. As shocking as the headline was, it was also thought provoking. This present generation has put a cloud on our traditions and customs. We care for them until we are interested and as soon as our purpose gets realized wedon't give a damn. We celebrate, organize functions, offer prayers and blessings and then as soon as we immerse the holy statue, we again immerse ourselves in sins and immorality which Lord Ganesh despised. This is still tolerable but the blatant insult by not immersing the holy statues is too much, as was shown clearly by the photographs. Thus we can say that we should not only celebrate festivals but celebrate it with full meaning, understanding and whole hearted participation. Or else it will be an insult to the true believers of Lord Ganesh and to the ones who keep our tradition alive.