Into the Sea! (Day Ten)

Juhu Beach in front of the Novatel about 9pm 

The beach was absolutely packed today with people taking their Ganesha idols into the sea. I didn't get to see any of the really big ones go in, but there were several in my neighborhood that required ten or twelve people to carry them into the waves. It was pouring rain all day, so it was hard to get pictures. The rain really didn't bother anyone but me though as it was a continuous parade all day and most of the night. There were random fireworks on the ground and in the sky and lots of drumming and singing and horns and always the chanting of "Ganpati Bappa! Mory-YA" Ganpati Bappa Morya means something like "Oh Father Ganesha!" 


I was watching some Hindi TV to see events elsewhere in the city and they were showing an unfortunate tragedy connected to a parade of one of the biggest idols. This particular idol, the most visited mandal in the festival, takes 24 hours to get from its home to the sea. A whole group of people fell when the balcony they were standing on collapsed. Now with all the cell phone cameras absolutely nothing happens without being recorded. The clip was shown continuously for a long time on one channel. They're not that big on building codes here. I've been shown a few apartments with spectacular views from 30 stories up but I'm not quite sure I want to be that high up in a building in this town.