This city sits uncomfortably yet positively amidst rising sky scrapers surrounded by expanding slums. The poor and the middle class are in awe of the rich, yet the rich too seek them out for their products and services. Some of the richest people live here, and so do the poorest of the poor. The city is serenading the landscape with awe-inspiring infrastructure, yet leaving glaring potholes on the roads. Life imitates the grandeur lifestyle in many parts, but in so many others the daily struggles squeeze people unimaginably and terribly. The Gods thus don’t seem to be kind to many people, and yet seem to shower their kindness on a few. But one God here represents an unprecedented celebration that provides a balm every year to keep the legendary spirit of the city alive and thriving.
Welcome to Mumbai, a city of constantly evolving contradictions, where the one constant is its love, adoration and friendship of Lord Ganesha. If living and thriving with contradictions is what a critical aspect of success is all about, then Mumbai provides the strongest representation of this phenomenon. I wonder if without Ganesha’s overwhelming presence and grace, this city can strike such a crafty balance and marry opposites the way it does.
This charming Lord is hardly a God, but a friend who visits Mumbaikars’ homes and pandals every year. I have grown up in this amazing city of energy and liveliness. Never have I witnessed a drop in enthusiasm for the Ganesha festival, which creates a happy chaos for eleven days, with people forgetting their worries and pain for that period. This festival is a mega blockbuster every year which the best of films with the best star cast cannot match. The frenzied buildup to welcoming the Lord home and the emotional farewell on immersion day are unique to Mumbai’s fabric and character.
The mad love for Ganesha is inclusive and not fanatical, such a success factor for developing healthy relationships and careers too. It just brings people together cutting across otherwise divisive lines and transforms the city into a huge arena of celebration. In this Karma City, where people are constantly on the move, I wonder if Ganesha arrives every year simply to live out his own ‘karma’ and bestow people with greater energy to carry on with their intense, struggle-filled lives.
If ever there is a true integration of the human with the divine, Mumbai’s Ganeshotsav is a living example of that. Ganesha here is venerated as God of course, but also celebrated as one amongst us – what with Ganesha idols being represented as carrying a bag to office, or wearing a fashionable item, or sitting grandly in a pandal decorated with the latest theme that is impacting society.
The continuous threat to human relevance in a way is mitigated by representing Ganesha as someone like us, thus also drawing inspiration to stay contemporary and useful. Ganesha, after all, earned the right to be worshipped first and seems to be working his own ‘karmic’ dynamics with his majestic presence in the hearts of every Mumbaikar.
The relationship between man and God is interesting as well as intriguing. For average humans like us, God is more in the belief domain, and there is this constant flux between faith and rationality. But for the average Mumbaikar, Ganesha is a living entity who communicates, eradicates obstacles and bestows grace in full public view. He is not seen as a silent God; rather, he is seen as listening and responding in his own unique expressive way.
This magnificent relationship between Mumbai and the Lord is what defines the city’s ethos and celebratory spirit despite the constant undercurrent of the struggle to dream, exist and keep going despite the odds. For many, success here is not a destination, but simply keeping the journey alive to battle it out one more day, day after day.
For the average Mumbaikar, success lies in the various contradictions that dot their lives. Mumbai in many ways is a learning ground for creating success through the hard grind of life leveraging the power of the indomitable spirit and relentless energy.
The annual Ganeshotsav provides the city with the energy and exuberance to keep trying, and just as the spirit wanes, the Lord arrives with renewed vigour to renew the vigour of Mumbaikars.
And the chants of Ganpati Bappa Morya, Pudacha Varshi Lavkar Ya rent the air simply to let their friend know they are waiting eagerly for him to return.
Hariharan Iyer is a seasoned Motivational Speaker, Corporate Trainer and Author of multiple management books. He is the Founder-Creator of Hariharan’s School Of Success Education (HSSE) - www.thehsse.com. He is popularly referred to as The Enter-Trainer®.
