I suppose my mother 'wins' as I discovered it this morning!

My mother was all for spending money on festivals. She wanted poojas to be grand affairs, while I wanted it to be simple and personal! I remember arguing with her about lighting 100's of lamps on Krishnashtami and wasting oil. I used to tell her that it would have been better if we gave it to the poor! (Not that we always give it to the poor while we pontificate on wasteful habits!) Her argument was 'Devara Kelasa' (God's work!) was paramount at any cost.

Anyway I remembered her as I went for my morning walk.

Here is why:

As I stepped out I saw the illunination still on around 7 am right under our nose as it were!

This street is about 100 meters away, perpendicular to the Girls School street. It was closed for traffic and Ganapathi is installed in the middle of the street.

This one is another two streets away on the same Girls School street.

Surprisingly or should we say 'no surprise' that there is one more Ganapati installed in between these two on the street parallel to GS steet. I am sure I will see many more if take a walk around KP west.

In fact, around 250 meters from our house on the Reservoir Road, perpendicular to the Girls street, you will see the main pandal where the festivities, I believe, will take place for the next 10 days.

The childrens play area, which is just a bare gravel filled ground, takes on a different avatar.

In fact, I see very few children playing there. It is full of grown ups, teens and above, playing tennis ball cricket!

The roads are illuminated and lights were still on even around 7 am . The road perpendicular to this was also full of lights hanging down from the trees!

It is here I thought of my mother. She would have been very happy that the organisers went all out to make this a pooja to remember!