Home made Paper Mache Ganpati Idol

Not just the home made ganapati decoration but also the Ganpati idol can be home made.

Ingredients for home made Paper mache Ganapati Idol-

• Soaked newz paper for whole night about cup full.
• one cup maida aata / white flour
• one cup Plaster of paris (POP)
• White glue / Fevicol for binding
• Acrylic colors
• paint brushes
• Glitter (optional)
• toothpick
• Deoderant spays cover as base
• Table tennis ball for round shape for stomach

As Last year, I was thinking of making the Ganeshas Idol at home. First thought was for Play dough. However as time passed, new idea of Paper mache idol poped up.

Method
Cut the newz paper in small pieces and then soak it i
n water over night.
Next day - Crush the soaked newz paper in the food processor. It should be pulp.
Mix the pulp with maida and POP. Add little fevicol for binding purpose.

The dough will have consistency of chapati dough or bread dough.
Later shape it into Ganapati Idol. It will be good if one uses Deo sprays cover as base or any other bottles cover as base. Try to make the feet of the ganapati around this cover. It will help the idol stand stable.
To add filler one might use table tennis ball in stomach area.

One can use toothpick as base for the axe in Ganapatis hand. Once the body of the Ganapati is ready, it needs to be dried in the sun for week. Else it will get fungus.
Start coloring the Ganapati idol with brush and acrylic colors. one can use glitter for adding different jewellery items.

The Ganapati is all set for pooja
.

Elephant Pooja/ Worship, Kerala , India

Along the way from Bypore, Kerala, India to Kumarakom, Kerala, India we spotted a Elephant Puja / worship being performed on the road. We had almost reached Cochin, Kerala, India by evening.

My 2 year old son is interested in the Elephants. We decided to stop the car and have a close look at the ceremony being performed across the road.

There were three elephants standing in front of the decorated bamboo entrance. There was mahout - elephant trainer sitting on the head of each elephant. The elephants were decorated with several jewellery items and flowers. Each elephant had a numbered plate tied in the neck. Seems they were belonging to some local temple.

Bunch of local musicians were standing in front of these elephants and playing the music. There were couple of ladies carrying a plate with lamp and other worship accessories.

The entrance poles were decorated with Banana and coconuts. Its said when in Rome behave like Roman. As we were in Kerala, the locally grown crops such ass Banana and Coconuts is not only visible in the food but also used for decoration.

Play Dough Ganapati

Excitement has no end. I had fair idea of preparing Ganapati Idol from Play Dough in my mind for a long time. While buying the Play dough from Forum Value Mall, Whitefield, I had no idea, that i will be celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi in great pomp. Immediately after reaching home, I stayed awake till night 2 o clock to prepare the idol.


Later came challenge of preparing the Decoration. I browsed the Whitefile Market next weekend to find Thermacol. However was not able to find one. Came back home with some coloured paper sheets and Bunch of plastic coffee cups. The newly baught Laptop Tables Cartons which were going to turn into the waste got converted in to Decoration material.

Couple of pillars, Dome with Kalash on it and plastic coffee cups converted our final Ganapati Decoration Theme.
This followed by full packed lunch theme with Modaks, potato vege, tomato sar, green peas curry, koshimbir, chutney and last but not the least set of 21 Modaks.
All said and done, 11 sets of 21 Durvas and some flowers completed our offerings to Lord Ganesha with seasoning of Prayers.
Ideas kept on pouring in my mind to make it a special day for us. Thanks a lot Dear Ganapati Bappa...Three cheers to you..Ganapati Bappa Morya......

Ganesh - Lord of Lord

Ganesha or Ganapati, is know as Lord of Lords by Hindus. He is one of the deities best know and widely worshipped by the Hindus. As the folk lore says, Lord Ganapati is worshipped first before begining any activity or event by the Hindus.

Ganaptis bithday is celebrated on Chaturthi (4th Day ) of the hindu month Bhardrapath.

It is commonly called as Ganesh Chaturthi.

This festival is celebrated in big pomp Maharastra. Being Maharastrian, we have been celebrating it for many years in our family. In recent years, it is celebrated at my cousins home in Pune. This is a big event for our family and in todays hectic life an excuse for all of us to meet at one place. :)

The Ganapati Idol is baught from the shops from local market on previous day. These shops usually spring up like mushrooms in the local market area to catter to the festivals requirement.

The Idol is braught home by head of the family with the Idols face facing towards him.

Next day the Ganapti is installed in a special seat decorated specially for him. This is known as Ganapati Sthapana.

After the sthapana, puja and mantras are recieted by all family memebers.

This chanting of pujas and prayers every morning and night goes on for next 5 days.

On the fifth day, Ganapati Visarjan takes place. The lords idol is immersed in water body.

Gudi Padwa Celebrations

Gudi Padwa is a Marathi name of Hindu holy day/festival. It marks the begining of the Hindu New Year. Gudi Padwa is celebrated in big pomp by the local school at Ganesh Nagar Ganpati Mandir, Goregaon, Mumbai. I happened to witness these celebrations while at my mothers place in year 2009.
There was a band of Legim players who marched from the school towards the temple along with music band. The teachers and school kids, who were dressed up in various Maharashtrian traditional dress, participated in the procession. The whole idea of the procession is to create awareness of the rich Indian tradition amongst the school kids.

Diwali at Trafalgar Square

The Diwali festival was celebrated in Trafalgar Square, London with great pomp. The Mayor of London had hosted the Diwali celebration on Sunday, 19th October 2008. It is called Mayor of London - Diwali. I took Bakerloo line from Kenton to Charing Cross and took Trafalgar Square Exit. There were lots of Indians flocking around in that area, although I had reached the venue quiet early. There was huge Lord Ganpati Idol standing in front of the Trafalgar monument. The Diwali Celebrations Stage was put up infront of the Trafalgar Square Monument. There were tents setup by different NGOs on the square. They were distributing Diwali Greeting Cards and Balloons. After some time the celebrations started with prayer to Lord Ganesha and speech my Mayor of London.

The program continued with lots of Bollywood songs and dances. The place became crowded slowly. There were food stalls with Indian offering Indian food. I grabbed some food stuff to eat. Since I had to go to Birmingham the next day, I left for the day.

How to prepare Karanji in UK

Well precisely, the question is 'How to prepare Karanji in UK with limited resources and skillsets?'. I wanted to prepare some faral for Diwali on my own and thought of preparing Karanji. Being outside India and had limited resources, the best option was to lower expectations and manage with what was available.

The Ingredients for covering:

• Wheat Flour



• Luke warm water



• Milk

The Ingredients for the stuffing

• 1.5 cup Desicated Coconut - Since fresh grated coconut was not available



• 4 to 5 tbs Gud - Jagrey



• 2 to 3 tbs Honey



• Luke warm milk



• pinch of safforn

Oil to fry.

Preparation:

Step 1 : Knead the wheat flour in to dough with help of some Luke warm water and milk. The dough should be slightly thick compare to that of made for chapatis. This will help the Karanji to hold together when frying it in oil. Cover the kneaded dough with piece of cloth and keep it aside.

Step 2: Shred about 5 tbs of Jagrey and mix it with the descicated coconut in the mixing bowl. Add small quantity of milk and try to mix the jagrey with the cocount. If it doesnot mix properly then place the mixing bowl in microwave for 5 seconds. When the mixture gets warm its easy to blend it together. Add some honey and pinch of saffron to it.

Step 3: Next step is to prepare the Karanji. Make small balls of the dough. Prepare small sized chapati out of it. It should be more thicker then the chapati to hold the stuffing inside it. Slowly add the stuffing to it. Fold the chapati into half and press the corners of the chapati to prevent the stuffing to falls off.

Step 4: While filling the Karanji with stuffing, heat oil in kadhai. Add the Stuffed Karanjis in the pre-heated oil. When the Karanji is Golden Brown remove it and place it on kitchen towel.

The Karanjis are ready to eat.

Lentils Rangoli

Staying in Nottingham and commuting to London on weekdays for Hi-Tech Consulting job, I had less time to buy Rangoli and other stuff from Leicester. But this was not enough to dampen by hopes of celebrating Diwali with big pomp. I checked the kitchen rack and picked Mung Dal and Matki. The red lentils - Masoor dal was missing. I immediately baught it from Tesco. Hurray!!! the ingredients for the perfect Diwali Rangoli were ready. I pulled the IKEA side table from one corner of the room and drew a flower on it. I started pouring different colored dals or lentils in the flower petals and the center. I used the painting brush to equalise level of the lentils and to format them in the desired shape. My rangolis center design was complete and was wondering to add something more to it. We had baught tea coaster from Crate and Barrel in Richmond, VA and never used them ever. After a year or so, it was the right time to use them for the first time. I placed the candels in the tea coasters and poured lentils in the tea coaster around the candel. So was my diwali rangoli complete. I left London next day for week to attend my consulting Job at TFL site.

Diwali decoration

We had recently baught a IKEA standing lampshed which almost resembeled a Kandil.
I had baught some glass balls which are attached on the Xmas Tree and a beaded rope from Poundland. I thought of preparing a Toran out of it. I joined the glass balls on the green and red beads rope with strings. And our so called Anglo-Indian Toran was all ready for Diwali.
I literally created something intresting out of nothing. After seeing me doing all this, Abhi to got excited and joined me in the preparations. Next on the list was Rangoli.

Diwali in Nottingham

We moved to UK in October 2006 and were put up in SACO service appartments for month. With most of our home stuff being shipped from US to UK, we celebrated our frist diwali after marraige without to much to do. We moved in the so called permanent rented home in Novemeber 2006. I decided to celebrate our first diwali after marraige in Nottingham in 2007. Its better late then never. :)
One week before diwali, I tried to convince Abhi that we should celebrate diwali. But he was as usual reluctant to follow any Indian Cultural stuff. But I never gave up hope as usual and went down and baught some chirstmas decoration stuff from Poundland and red lentils packet from Tesco. When I reached home back he was still wondering what I am all up to. I started preparing for the diwali decoration.

Leicester Rath Yatra

After deciding to leave UK for good, we invited our friends in Nottingham for Lunch in Indian Restaurant in Leicester. Leicester Rath Yatra happend to be on the same day of our visit and was a pleasant surprise for us. It was good to see one of the Indian festivals being celebrated in UK at such a large scale. This procession was organized by the Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Temple in Leicester. There were 3 or 4 Raths included in the yatra.

Rath Yatra = Lords Carriages Procession.

The carriages holds the idol of the God and there is procession of these God Idols along a the city. The devotees participating in the processoin chant prayers. As tribute to Lord Krishna, some of the devotees were dancing on the Bhajans(prayers) in front of the Raths.