Throwing elephants in the water

Today is the final and most important day of Ganesh Chaturthi, which means it's a little crazy around here. The city is filled with roving bands of revelers accompanying their family or neighborhood idol of Ganesh, the remover of obstacles. Most of the groups have drums and dancing. I saw one tonight that had a group of guys twirling themselves as they twirled their swords and six-foot metal poles with the rhythm of the drums. I kept my distance from those guys.

But the real highlight was going with the Consulate contingent to Chowpatty beach. The Ganesh idols are all eventually immersed in water of some sort (don't ask me why), and the main place in Bombay is Chowpatty, the beach right in the middle of the city. The throngs there on this day are said to number in the millions. As snooty diplomats, of course, we were not among the multitudes, but were on the VIP viewing platform with other diplomats and unidentified Indians. We felt rather like the the royals in Gladiator or some other movie where they're up away from the crowd, reviewing the procession, watching and waving. Anyway, some of the Ganeshes are pretty impressive, up to 20 feet tall and with big accompanying crowds.

We stayed for about an hour and half before deciding that the Ganeshes all pretty much look the same, and that we had gotten the idea. But the festival goes through the night, and as I type I can hear booming music, drums, and fireworks. Wild stuff.