Lalbaugcha Raja

As has been our practice for the last few years, this time too we were at Lalbaug on Ganesh Chaturthi for ‘ mukh darshan ‘ of the Raja. Total time for darshan – One hour fifty minutes. Well managed crowds though there was a fair bit of jostling in front of the idol. The volunteers and policemen were stretched and we soon saw why — Uddhav Thackeray with family and gun-toting securitymen and cronies had just completed his darshan.

First things first. Unlike Ganapati who has his vaahan at his foot, we, lesser mortals had a tough time finding a slot for our vaahan. After going around for a while, parked the car 1.5 kilometers away from the start of the queue. A brisk walk and were in the queue at 6.45 PM. It moved quickly enough and soon we passed through the vacated chicken stall into the main hall, which again is a temporarily vacated marketplace.

Serpentine lines in barricaded rows were seen for the length and breadth of this hall. I wondered if I was in the M.A.Chidambaram Stadium for a CSK game, as the hall was washed in yellow. Yes, it was Frooti all the way with their mango-yellow banners. Another major advertiser was Imagica which was offering one ticket free for two purchased, provided you sent a SMS to them with the word ‘ Morya’. Possibly their way of acknowledging that life was a roller-coaster ride and only Ganapati could help you. Zomato too was present promising delivery of Modak, Laddoo and Puran Polis. Possibly next time round, the Lord Himself would order online. On one giant television Baba Ramdev was pushing Patanjali while on the other Big B was extolling the virtues of Mi A2.

The lines moved slowly thanks to people stopping every now and then to click selfies. Some carried selfie sticks too. It was a carnival atmosphere with laughter, banter and smiles all round. Religious fervour? Less. Finally an hour and twenty five minutes later we were out on the street leading straight to the Raja.

Here it was JIO all the way. Will not be surprised if there is an announcement from Mukeshbhai offering free calls to Heaven with only mobile data charges payable. Ha, the Raja was now visible in all his glory, hold it, now only in part, I now see Him again, now a part of Him disappears. Oh! These multitude of hands going up with their mobiles for clicking pictures.A couple of them were on video calls relaying live action to someone far away. Leveraging technology, wow!

Soon we were before the Lord. What an amazing feeling! No requests placed, no promises made, simply overawed and a plain thanks for all He has done before we were ushered/ pushed out at the end of an hour and fifty minutes.