This week has been a tricky one. A trial, as my Dad says. The day after our electricity fiasco (see High BP and Electricity post), my sweet father had a near-fatal heart attack back in the US. He is now back at home without any heart damage at all, thank God. His last heart attack was on Christmas Day 4 years ago, so this time at least he only missed Labor Day.

In India, instead of Labor Day, we celebrated Ganesha Chaturthi, a Hindu festival that celebrates the elephant-headed Indian god.

According to Wikipedia:

“This is a very auspicious day celebrated to pray to the god so that every new activity that is started is successfully completed without any obstacles…

“The festival is celebrated by families at home, by people at their places of work and in public. The public celebration involves installing clay images of Ganesha in public pandals (temporary shrines) and group worship. At home, an appropriately-sized clay image is installed and worshipped with family and friends. At the end of the festival, the idols are immersed in a large body of water such as the sea, river or a lake. The clay idols disintegrate over time in the water.”

Embracing as much as we can during our short time in India, we participated in the Ganesha festivities. The girls know that we believe in Jesus, and are Christians, not Hindus, but it was important to us that they understand the cultural significance of the festivals surrounding them, religious or secular. It might at times be confusing for the girls to differentiate between Jesus and the Hindu gods we pass by on the roadside everyday. When driving by the huge Hanuman (the monkey god, and my girls’ favorite Hindu god) idol earlier in the week, Masan was praying for my dad after his heart attack and said, “Hanuman, please keep Papa safe.” When I reminder her that we pray to Jesus, she said, “Hanuman, please pass the message on to Jesus.” Hmmm…we may be completely screwing these kids us religiously.

On Ganesha Chaturhi we were invited to the club house in our neighborhood where we watched a puja, a prayer ritual, which consisted of chants and prayers; gifts of money, flowers, and food; and a heavily decorated Ganesha. We really didn’t have too much of a sense of what was going on during the ceremony, but it was interesting to watch, and we appreciated being allowed to be there. What I have experienced thus far is that the majority of Indians are very welcoming and take a “the more the merrier” approach, even during their holiest ceremonies.

Later in the day we were invited to our across-the-street neighbor’s house for what was kind of like an open house with their own private Ganesha that people could offer prayers to. Dan and I chatted with our neighbors and the girls took over the neighbors’ twin teenage daughters’ bedroom. There was also delicious food, and Mia loved the coconut puri bread the best. Not having gone to a private home for a Ganesha celebration before, we weren’t sure what to bring. Being Italian, I can never show up anywhere empty-handed so appropriate or not, we brought chocolates. We were given a coconut and a lantern as party favors upon taking our leave.

Ganesha being submerged in a lake. Made of clay so not too much water pollution.

Giant Hanuman statue in Bangalore.

Later in the evening we joined a procession of our neighbors snapping photos (there are many expats who live here) dancing, singing and carrying one large and many small Ganesha idols on a flat cart through the neighborhood to the mosquito-infested lake outside of the entrance gates where the statues were delicately dropped into the water. Masan and Evie used this time as an excuse to run wild with their school friends. Mia and Dan went home to start the grill for the Labor Day portion of our celebrating. Masan cried when she wasn’t able to carry one of the Ganesha statues down to the lake. I told her that we needed to let the Hindus carry the statues since this is their holiday. In my girl’s quest to do everything artistically and to the fullest, she wanted to be wholly involved.

Masan embracing the festivities.

Ganesha in the procession to the lake.

Puja at the neighborhood clubhouse.

When the girls and I turned into our lane to head home Dan met me in the street with a beer in hand, and asked the girls to go directly to the neighbors’ house. Uh-oh. Whatever he wanted to say couldn’t be said in front of them. That’s never good. Apparently, when he got home and flipped on a light switch, fire again reigned down from the ceiling. The fridge that had just been fixed two days prior from the first electrical storm blew out again. Along with our brand new projector for the girls’ room for our weekly movie nights. So we packed our bags and headed to the Marriott once again. It was not as unemotional as I have written, but I will spare the swearing and in-fighting.

When bad things happen, it’s only natural to turn inwards and say, “WTF?” or “Why did this happen?” “Or did I deserve this?” It’s like we have turned into the India equivalent of the Bible’s Job. Crappy things were happening to us, and we couldn’t seem to get past them. As ridiculous as it sounds, Dan and I asked each other if Jesus was angry because we had been participating in the Hindu festival. Although we never prayed to Hindu gods, was the attention we were giving to this festival day an issue? It definitely seemed like we were being punished.

Fast forward to today where it’s the third day of electricians in our house. They travel in packs and are all affiliated with different organizations—the landlord’s electricians, the Adarsh developer’s electricians, our independent electricians, the neighborhood’s electricians. Today it’s the developer’s electricians. Everyone wants to have a look at the fuse boxes and they all have a different opinion as to what happened, although no one has a clear plan of what needs to be done. I’d go into more detail about what the issues seem to be, but the diagnostics change depending on who is doing the diagnosing. I will say that there is too much electricity being used on the small grid we have. Yeah, we knew this on Wednesday. This time we will not be moving back into the house until we are 100% certain that this will not happen again. Until then it’s corporate housing or the Marriott.