This is the ganpati murti in my help's, Nanda's, home. It's a shed deep in the fields that is, today, swampy and marshy, due to incessant rain. The shed has been swept and decorated with fushcia and green rangoli. As a backdrop, she has used a lovely saffron-golden net saree. People in whose houses she works have given the tinsel and streamers. The incense sticks are special mogra-scented ones from her village.
When the winds howled and threatened to rip the roof apart and disarray everything, she and her family leapt to hold on to the tin sheets, while shielding the murti like a baby from the storm. I wonder if people ever realize how strong they are when they go to such lengths to protect a god, no less. I wonder if the god realizes how lucky it is that such fine, strong people treat it like one of their own.
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