the division bell
Published Monday, September 19, 2005 by anish | E-mail this post
Well, a little late but a post on the Ganeshotsav. Also, finally something that aint Dubya related.
Anant Chaturdashi holds a special place in my heart, especially since I live very close to the river. The poetic pink wash given to the roads, the most obscure pieces of music you've ever heard and people dancing like they've got a mouse up their pants. Aah, nostalgia !
Saw one very interesting event his year. Since the very large junction just in front of my house has been declared dance stop central, I get to see a lot of what is best described as drunken buffonry. But this one incident really stood out this time. These two Ganpati mandals, who henceforth taking a cue from reservoir Dogs will be referred to as Mandals Orange and White had a slight altercation. Orange is called Orange mainly because it was lead forward by a group of way-too-old-for-half-pants senior citizen RSS members with the orange Shiv Sena flag overkill. White showed no any particular inclination and hence a neutral colour..
Mandal White reached the junction first blaring this Tamil/Malyalam song that seemed to be the rage all day saturday.. Mandal Orange was just behind them. For the dance number Mandal White put on a surprising remix of 'Allah Ke Bande'. Quite a welcome surprise after a whole day of Dhoom and Kajara Re. While the song started normal enough, 10 seconds down the line it changed to something that went as follows 'Toota , Toota.. dhikchak,dhikchak... , Toota , Toota.. dhikchak,dhikchak...' While this 2 word and 2 drum beat rendition continued for around 2 minutes or so, Mandal Orange had reached upto the junction. Seeing the road blocked ahead by White, the RSS grandpas saw the quick chance to rest their weary legs on any surface they found. And suddenly all hell broke loose.
For you see even though 'Toota , Toota.. dhikchak,dhikchak... ' might seem attractive to some people, the remix master for this particular song, bless his heart realised that the song actually had more words than 'Toota , Toota'. So, the words 'Allah ke bande' blared on the speakers. As you can imagine it bought new life into those almost ready to drop RSS walking skeletons. Aided o'course by their Shiv Sena brethren who were all happily riding behind in a truck. An immediate halt to the song was brought forth. 'An insult to Ganapati' they declared, 'Sacrilage' they cried. After many stern lectures and a few slaps by the Shiv Sena cronies, Mandal White put on what can be described as the worst recording of 'Omkara Swarupa' I have ever heard. And o'course they were made to lose their spot in the line and force Orange to go ahead. O'course this was a cause of celebration for the Shiv Sena folks and loud music was their only answer. And what song did they choose first ? A certain number by one miss 'Tata Young'. No points for getting the song.