Thursday, Dec 20 2007

Home News Business Movies Astrology Food Samachar Shopping Sports Videos    More   Veg Recipes | Non Veg Recipes | User Recipes | Expert Recipes | Health & Nutrition | Tips | Post a Query | Post a Recipe | My Bawarchi

By Malini Bisen Religion in India is still a living force and Indians appreciate and cultivate the festival spirit even in this age of industrialisation and political upheavals. May be Ganesh festivals bring people together and make the nation move forward and grow. Ganesh Festival is very popular in our country. The birth of Lord Ganesh is on the 4th day of the bright half of Bhadrapad (August/September). This festival is celebrated for 10 days from Ganeshchaturthi - birth -date-to Anantchaturdashi - the final 10th day of his immersion. Everyone loves this deity with his curving trunk, pot-belly and big glappy ears. He is the benevolent protector of the innocent, yet the ruthless destroyer of evil. His mount is a rat. In several states of India, but specially in Maharashtra clay idols of Ganesh in varying sizes are made and sold. The idols are purchased and brought home the day previous to Ganesh Chaturthi which is the day of Hartalik when women keep fast and invoke the blessings of goddess Parvati, who is Ganesh's mother. In streets and commercial establishments community worship is offered to a life-size or even a bigger image, installed on an erected platform. This Lord Ganesh is very fond of sweets and hence khir, panchamrit, fruits and sweets and specially modaks are placed before him as "Naivedya" or "Bhog". After the ritual worship this "Bhog" is distributed as "Prasad". On the day of immersion which is either 3rd, 5th, 7th or 10th day after performing "Puja" the idol is taken out in a procession by people who dance and sing. On the 10th day - the Anantchaturdashi day the sea fronts are packed with surging mass of humanity as the idols of Ganesh are carried towards their watery rest among shouts of "Ganapati Bappa Moriya", Pudhachya varshi lavkar ya" (Return early next year, oh Victorious Lord Ganesh). Many interesting legends about the birth and the greatness of Lord Ganesh are found in old ancient religious texts. He is considered to be the god of wisdom, prudence and prosperity. The worship of this god is coming down to us right from the vedic times. Every religious ceremony is completed even today with invoking his blessings at the very beginning with the solemn recitation of "Om Ganeshaya Namaha" (I bow to Thee Lord Ganesh). It is believed that Lord Ganesh put down on paper the slokas of our great epic Mahabharat as they were dictated to him by Maharshi Ved Vyas. Sant Gyaneshwar's Gyaneshwari starts with praise of Lord Ganesh. Since the days of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj the founder of the Maratha empire this Ganesh Festival was celebrated on a grand scale in Pune and later on the Peshwas themselves participated in this festival as Ganesh was their family deity. Today this festival is the most colourful and happy event in the religious, social and cultural life of India specially that of Pune. With the end of the Peshwa regime this festival lost its glamour and came to be observed privately in households only. Thus many years passed. At the crucial juncture of India's history when the nation indeed under the yoke of slavery of the British, Lokmanya Tilak, who proclaimed "Swarajya is my birth-right and I'll have it" realising the importance of the massive popularity of this festival initiated its nationwide celebrations in 1893. Then it became a platform for political awakening and uprising among people to gain freedom from British imperialism. Ganesh Festival thus played a very important role in our Freedom Struggle. In Maharashtra there are eight famous Ganesh temples which are places of pilgrimage and are visited by countless number of people every year with the faith that these visits wipe away all the sins and lead man to the ultimate truth, the Moksha. Lord Ganesh's images and pictures not only are seen presiding over the lintels of the doorways of many Hindu homes as hartingess of good luck out in hospitals private Nursing homes and clinics. Ganesh is looked upon as the god of good harvest and hence after his immersion clay is brought from the waterside and sprinkled into the farms and store-rooms for luck & plenty. During the last 5000 years of history in the pre-Vedic era, the concept of Ganesh had reached all over the world and idols of Ganesh in various forms have been found in Java, Indo-China, Nepal, Combodia, Tibet, Thailand, Vietnam and Srilanka where He is regarded as the protector and saviour of mankind from the menace of ghosts and demons. The most popular and colourful Ganesh festival is a wholesome occasion for ritual worship prayers, celebrations and hospitality. It also means cheer, goodwill and home-made sweets, spicy snacks and a variety of delicious preparations! One of the sweet dishes prepared during this festival is Modak Modak is a ritual sweet dish, specially prepared on the day of Ganeshchaturthi which lasts for 10 days. For all these ten days, every day a special sweet dish is prepared in offering to the god and then distributed as `prasad' to the members of the family and friends. Ganeshchaturthi is the first day on which Modaks are prepared. All the same, they can be prepared any day as sweet dish for the family. Following is the recipe for preparing this recipe. Ingredients 100 gms. almonds 100 gms. pistachios 200 gms. sugar 1kg. powdered sugar 1 kg. khoya 4 drops of rose essence. Method Put the khoya in a big and deep metal plate. Add the powdered sugar and drops of essence of rose. Mix together and knead together to make a soft dough. Without blanching the almonds and pistachios, chop them into small bits. Rub them and husk them. Mix 200 gms. sugar in the chopped bits. Lightly grease the palms, take out a small lump from the prepared dough of khoya, roll it in between the palms and shape into a ball. Make a hollow in the middle of the ball and place about a teaspoonful of the almond-pistachios mixture. Carefully pull up the sides and gather them at the top, giving it a conical shape. When ready the modak should resemble a fresh fig, thus make all the modaks. The article and the recipe are provided by Malini Bisen.