Ganesh Utsav or Utsav Ganesh?
'Festival' or 'show off'? By Aboli Lokhande The other day, in the morning, a group of chanda collectors knocked our door. “Madam ‘Ganpatichi Vargani’”, they said. “How much?”, I asked “This year rs. 600 m’m, compulsory”, said the group “Pardon me? Are you joking?” I said “It’s too much to afford” “M’m, we have chalked out the plan and we worked out 600rs contribution per family”, they said firmly. “It’s impossible, we have to celebrate Ganapati at home too, we can’t afford”, I continued The conversation between me and the group went on for near about 15 minutes. The group and I both felt that we were losing our good terms because of money. Is it really worth to spend so much money to come closer as society members? When the festival was conceptualized originally by Lokmanya Tilak, the idea was entirely different. The tradition started several years back, his idea was to make people aware and unite them for freedom