Ganesha aka Vinayagar aka Ganapathy aka Pillaiyar- is one of my favourite gods I have images of him in my room, that I wake up to every morning. There's a statue of him, much like the one in the pic, on top of my stereo. There's a lovely mother-of-pearl inlaid mahogany flat portrait of him at the front of the house, at the top of the main wall facing the front door..can't miss it. There's a minute ganesha statue just below the speedometer of the car, blue-tacked down to keep it secure.

He's a protector and a remover of obstacles..revered, loved, and accessible. The first prayer of a Hindu is usually to him.

Tomorrow it's the Vinayagar Chathurthi..a very auspicious day celebrating the birth of the elephant-headed God.

Every year, my dad's side of the family (the hindu side), has massive prayers at the temple. Every one makes an effort to turn up cos you can't miss this one. My grandparents, as heads of the family, take charge of everything. The daughters and daughters-in-law are expected to turn up the day before to cut vegetables for the massive feast that'll be distrubuted the next day. The men are expected to run alot of errands, getting supplies and ferrying people in cars. The grandkids are expected to set up and serve the food after the prayers. This involves rolling out the mats in the dining hall , laying out the banana leaves for the seated devotees, walking down the line serving the different components of the full vegetarian meal (rice, a variety of vegetable dishes, sambar, yoghurt, vadai and a sweetmeat), topping up the quickly emptied food vessels and of course, clearing away the used banana leaves one by one after the people are done eating and setting up for the next round of people. It runs like clockwork, and it's exhausting. But this is our duty to the fellow devotees and in a way, it's like serving the community because it's not only family that turns up to be part of the prayers, but complete strangers as well. People usually flock to the temple on an auspicious day, cos they want a piece of the divinity haha.

It's all good.
Share the love.