Darshan of Khairtabad Ganesh

I have known my friend Ravi for more than four decades now and for most of this time he had been asking me to come and witness the fervour of Ganesh  immersion at Tank Bund. As the owner of Ravi Cranes, he and his team has been handling the transport of the Bada Ganesh at Khairtabad, at times, the largest in India, to Tank Bund and the subsequent immersion. I have for so many years stayed away from the Ganesh Immersion for reason unknown (perhaps Bada Ganesh did not feel I was ready), but when he called yesterday and said I should come I said I would.

Khairatabad Ganesh

So I headed out at 11 pm to Khairatabad hoping to walk around Tank Bund and see some fervour and noise from the devotees. Having been cooped up all these years at home I was not prepared for what I saw. Right from my home, there were trailers and trucks going in processions towards Tank Bund on the Main Road with people dancing and celebrating. Many wore coordinated clothes, had music (not very loud though thankfully). An the number of police on the road was crazy.

Perspective of size

At Khairatabad the road to Imax over the flyover was shut so I headed towards Secretariat and took the Mint Compound road as advised by Koni. I found a crazy amount of people there and somehow managed to squeeze the car into a parking lot by the road. Then I called Koni because they had shut the road to the Khairatabad Ganesh - darshan over. 

Khairatabad Bada Ganesh - Puja

Koni however was operating the crane so they allowed me in. There were a lot of police there, the crane and trailer operators, workmen, some devotees. The work of dismantling the structures around the 69 foot idol was going on. 

Flower bedecked trailer

I could hear names like Shakeel, Yousuf and asked Koni whether many workmen were Muslim and he said yes.

The crane 140 ton

The Khairatabad Ganesh holds pride of place in all the Ganesh pandals in Hyderabad for sheer size. Singari Shakaraiah, a freedom fighter and corporator, started the Khairatabad idol in 1954 with a one foot idol to emulate Tilak's idea of fostering a spirit of community. From then on it grew at the rate of one foot per year until 2014 when it grew to a height of 60 feet. In 2019 it was 61 feet and was then the tallest in India. Though there is a High Court order restricting the height of idols to 20 feet, it stood at 69 feet this year.

On Tank Bund

The theme this year was Operation Sindoor and Vishwashakti and Mahashakti. They say that the budget is about a crore. The size apart, the Khairatabad Ganesh was also known to have a laddu in its hand. Until 2009 it ws a 50 kg laddu and between 2010 and 2015 it grew into a 500 kg laddu and at some point the makers from Tapeshwaram Sweets made a 6000 kg laddu. It seems to have settled between 500 and 1000 kg now.

Cranes on Tank Bund

I watched the puja, the removal of the bamboo supports. The police sent away the small crowd of devotees, less than a hundred, and the decommissioning began. I left and drove into Tank Bund where there were many idols being immersed and lots of crowd. It was past one in the night but it was like  a festival. People in cars with open boots, two wheelers, on walk, on trailers were all over. In Secunderabad processions kept coming one after another, 100 meters apart far as the eye could see.

Procession going towards Tank Bund - at James Street

The entire city was filled with a festive fervour and even at 215 when I reached home, the action was very much on. Ravi told me that the idol will start from Khairatabad at 6 am and travel the distance of 2.4 kms in five hours before immersion at 1130 am. 50 k idols are supposed to be immersed in Hussain Sagar lake today.

The color, the pomp, the energy, the planning, the devotion...its just crazy. One should certainly go and just hang in there and watch. Its just so beautiful. So Indian. Thanks Koni. Next year I will stay all night brother.