Ganesha Shopping

September is when the Hindu festival of Ganseha (Vinayaka Chavithi) comes. One the most colourful and enjoyable aspects of the Ganesha festival is the streets decorated with various puja items. Figurines and statues of various sizes, shapes and colors line up the streets. Heaps of stems and green leaves of various trees and plants, called patri and banana shoots turn the streets a riot of green. Fruits ranging from velakkayi, apple, guava, corn etc are also sold - these make up a palavalli (small ceiling made of bamboo sticks). What i enjoy the most is buying these from the hawkers and vendors who mostly come from nearby villages. Their rustic demeanour and simplicity is perhaps the reason. One such occasion at Gudivada (my home town) eleven years ago is still fresh in mind. I had spent a lot of time speaking to the kids on the street in the process of buying the stuff. Perhaps what keeps this occasion still relatively free from commercialisation is that this comes only once a year, and the ad-hoc suppliers are from the villages.