Ganpati is here again

Well that's right - 11 days of frenzied pujas and devotion is back this year. And every year around this time I keep marveling at how wonderful it is that Mumbai celebrates this festival with so much revelry, forgetting daily routines and the aches and pains they bring. Celebrating the arrival of their favourite god. Celebrating for they believe a new day has come. Celebrating because they think that things will change... Devotion of this sort baffles me - but who says I have to understand?
Anyway by day 11 I am usually worrying about the sea - the creatures in it. Its the same with all festivals it seems. Can there really be any salvation for people who pollute the air and water? How can people show their happiness and feel joy at the cost of nature?
I see so many women every now and then, in the trains throw things out into the river just before Bandra station - its okay to pray and chant some things you don't understand - and believe that this will take you to heaven but its not okay to believe that you will go to hell for dirtying the rivers and the seas? Affect the life of marine organisms...
Well I agree that people need a release - they need their Ganpatis and their Lakshmis. They need to forget everything but prayer for few days. They need to dance and sing. But it doesn't need to happen like this.

Anyway I can go on and on. But since I am talking about Ganpati - what saddens me this year to see all these pandals with beautiful ganesh idols inside is that their entrances have pictures of politicians. I mean what the hell why does politics even have to enter a festival and ruin it?
Also like last year, this year too I will most probably not go to any pandal to 'maatha teko'. I don't see what bowing in front of an idol can do for me - if I don't believe it will do anything at all. And like last year my mom is going to be pissed and my sis is going to be a real pain about it. All I would say is bigggg deal. What makes these 11 days more special than others? Just cause we choose them to be? That doesn't make any spiritual sense now. Shouldn't all 365 days be special is the question I always ask - to which I get no satisfactory answer everrrrrr....