Exploring the World : The Siddhivinayak Temple and Powai, Mumbai

The Ganesh Shrine in the Siddhivinayak Temple (google image)

Yesterday after work Prashanth (the other med student here) and his cousin picked me up from the hospital to go see a little more of Mumbai. I asked if it would be ok for me to actually go into the Siddhivinayak Temple:

The Siddhivinayak Temple

The gift given back to me at the Ganesh Shrine

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We drive through the honking traffic and turn through many little side streets to find parking. There are swarms of people in the streets- a few people sleeping, some huddled in groups with children and sheets over their heads, some going from person to person asking for money and help, and others just walking around. Suddenly the car stops and I look up. There is a man with osteogenesis imperfecta wheeling his way in front of our car. Before India I had only read about this in books during med school. I have seen it quite a few times here, along with severe untreated bilateral club foot. They sit on these little wooden homemade square wagons with wheels and use their hands to scoot themselves along. Sometimes if they have family or friends, they will be pulled by a rope. He is sitting in his wagon pushing himself along in front of our car with his legs deformed and curled into his body. After he passes, we continue to drive into a little pathway between huts and places where people have set up markets. There is a man outside the car yelling in Hindi. I have no idea what he is saying but we stop the car and my friend's cousin gets out. They converse back and forth and my door opens. They tell me to get out and I can't have a camera. I make sure my scarf is completely covering my neck and shoulders and hop out of the car. Prashanth gets out too and they pull me to guide me to start walking. They are telling me that we need to hurry but I'm not sure why. We walk a little ways as I make sure to place myself in between Prashanth and his cousin. We stop at a little stand and they hand us gifts of flowers, colored fabric, coconuts, and other decorations to give as a donation to the shrine of Ganesh. I hold my bag close to me with one hand over the zipper so no one can open it and grab the gift with the other hand (we will pay him later for these- 100 rupees). I stop for a moment to look at the flowers in my hand, and they remind to "Go; Hurry; Walk; Stay very close to us; Don't stop when they ask you for money; Don't let them touch your bag." We walk toward this pathway defined by hanging strings of christmas lights. There are bright orange, red, and yellow fabrics, candies, and lights everywhere as we walk onto the pavement. There is a carpet where we put our shoes and walk towards the back entrance of the Temple. There are women standing in the path with flowers and gifts for us to buy- they are shoving the flowers at me, pleading for me to buy them, looking at me with such intensity and sadness. Prashanth and his cousin remind me to keep walking and don't stop. It's hard for me to ignore them. We walk to the entrance and are rushed through the small "mandap" (hallway) to finally reach the Ganesh Shrine.

There are people shoving each other all around me, bumping into me, pushing me forward and to the side to reach the shrine. I pause in awe. It is beautiful. The ceiling is gold and there is a large statue of the Shri Ganesh surrounded by brilliant yellows and oranges. We take our gifts to the shrine and men standing there grab the gifts from us. They disappear for a moment and then return to us with a little basket of the flowers, a box of candy, and a coconut. This is ours to take back home. They tell me it is now blessed and to take it and hope for prosperity and wealth. We quickly take the flowers and squeeze through the people to leave. The wooden doors to the sanctum are carved with images of Ashtavinayak (the 8 manifestations of Ganesh in Maharashtra). People are praying, kissing the doors, the walls, the shrine, and kneeling towards the shrine in prayer. I want to be able to just stop, look at my surroundings, and take it all in, but I am reminded to "go, go, go." There are so many people surrounding me that I try to keep a close eye on my friend's shirt so I don't get lost. We quickly leave the temple and go put our shoes back on.

As we walk to the car, we step off the brightly lit pathway onto the dark street where we are parked. I look to the side and my stomach twists and clenches itself into knots. There are women and children sitting close together in a line with their hands raised in the air begging for money and food. One has an eye missing that has shrunken into itself and is filled with a blue haziness. Others have contracture scars from burns and other deformities. My stomach tightens when I look into their eyes and see their desperation. I want to stop and do something to help, but am told to keep walking quickly. Then a little boy (maybe 4 yo) comes up to me tugging on my shirt, saying "Khana! Khana! Khana!" (food, food, food). They surround us with persistence, desperation, and an intensity of plea that I have never seen before. We get to the car and they tell me to quickly get in. The little boy is putting his hands in the car and I try to tell him gently to get back and no touching "Haat moot luh ghaana!" I don't want to hurt him or close the door on his fingers, so they come around and push him back to shut the door. We lock the doors and drive out of the little streets. I have butterflies and my stomach is clenching and twisting on itself. My throat feels like it's swelling. I have seen the poverty from the window of my cab and from a distance in the rickshaws, but this was my first experience being swallowed by the desperation.

Next, we are driving to go meet up with some of their friends and cousin's friends. As we drive through the honking chaotic traffic, I am trying to take in what we just saw. Suddenly cars are honking all around me. Our car slams on the breaks and when I look up there are headlights glaring directly into my window on the right side of the car. "Woo. Close call." they tell me. "People here need to learn how to drive!" There is an overload of things going on around me. I try to just breathe and take it in.

Finally we are driving on a straight road with no intersections, and we go to a beautiful restaurant called "Mehman Nawazi" on the top of a high rise building in Powai, Mumbai. The buildings are tall and magnificent. We sit at a table, surrounded by the blue glow of the restaurant's lights, listening to music, and order delicious appetizers. There is cricket and soccer playing on the large screen tv at the bar. People are wearing their business clothes and drinking martinis around me. I am blown away at the intensities and contrasts around me, everywhere. After a couple of hours they drop me off at home and I fall into a deep sleep the second my head hits the pillow. The intensity is exhausting. I am constantly being reminded how very fortunate I am.
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