The difference

Lord Ganesha is my favorite God and I await his arrival every year with so much of anticipation.

As most of you know by now, I shifted to my new house in the month of June and this place seems cut off from inhabitation and other routine things which one sees happening around.

Ganesha celebrations in the Tippasandra house were so different. I could see people with idols or hear them sing bhajans or hear the drums beat while the groups took Ganesha home. I felt that there was something festive going on here. But in my new house, it seemed that only my family had Ganesha in the entire complex and none of the people, I had invited, bothered to even come for the darshan and oblige. All my close friends in Bangalore were working, so they couldn't make it for the day. One Marathi family came for the morning aarati and my immediate neighbor came for the evening aarati. That's it. That was it. That were our celebrations for the year, with just 4 family members in the house. The human contact was so minimal that I hardly felt that there was a huge festival being celebrated in the other parts of the city and the country.

Cut to my house in Dombivli, my hometown which is Maharashtra, where at least 100 people visit my home for Ganesha darshan. My mom's friends from the train, from her trekking group, from her other groups come over. My dad also knows a lot of people in the town as ours was amongst the first medical stores in Dombivli and my dad has been helpful to many people in times of emergencies. All the members in the society come over with their children. So it is really an event to look forward to and be happy about. At least 10 people are always present in the house during the evening hours. I became nostalgic and thought of those good old days. I wanted to be a part of those celebrations, at least this year, after 6 long years, but then destiny had something else in store for me. Never mind, I shouldn't think about what should have happened, but should be happy about being able to welcome Lord Ganesha in my new house.

I will leave you with a thought..

Does moving up the ladder in the so-called society and owning a house in a huge complex, far from our families and friends cut us off from the human contact and leave us self-centred and more privacy driven?

Or is this just a phase till we get to know people around in the society and befriend them and improve contacts with them?