Anant Chaudas Ki Jhanki

In our childhood schools used to open on July 1st after two months long vacation. As such we didn't have classes after March since April was the month of exams which would invariably get over by middle of the month so as such it was a three month long holiday but since parents had to worry about the results which was the yardstick of your performance through the year and results would be declared on April 30th, the official vacation time was only two months and not three.

Of those two months at least one and half would be spent in nani's house in Dewas and reluctantly we will be back about a week before reopening of the school. That would also mark end of summer as monsoon rains would start in Malwa towards the last week of June. Weather would turn from pleasant to very pleasant although as kids we would never mind any weather. However, sadly the time for aamras, that was part of all our summer meals would be over by then. July would also offer excitement of new class and give feeling of growing up by sitting in a class higher than when schools had shut two months back.  Sometimes there will new faces also joining the class and meeting new friends would have its own excitement. Some teachers would also be new in the new class and we always hoped that they would not be strict and will be good to us. You will have to impress them again to have impression of a good student. Although it was not common but not rare as well when you are asked to leave the class and stand outside.. don't know whether it would be called standing or sitting but the pose you were asked to keep was that of a "murga", right at the entry door of the classroom for the whole class to see.. it would be big distraction for the students sitting in the class that teacher would not notice as all the students will be looking at me and someone else, if I had the luxury of a company in that pose, rather than the blackboard.  As such I was a sincere student and would get punished by someone else's mischief. In the hindsight I think that was a practice that made me do yoga without any pain in later life. 

Savan /Shravan is the month when monsoon will be at its peak and it would usually start in middle of July. Mondays of the month had their own religious importance that we hardly cared but every Savan Monday was a picnic day. There would be four and sometimes five Mondays in Savan ( सावन सोमवार). On these Mondays mother, me, our friends and their mothers would go out to Balaji temple on the outskirts of the village on a potluck picnic. While mothers did Puja in the temple we would be swinging on the rope/ rassi-jhulas that were tied over several pipal and bad (बड़)/banyan trees. Next to the temple was a rivulet that would be flowing with full water during monsoon and when it rained heavy, it would get flooded and the road would go under giving a visual pleasure to villagers ( although commuters will be cursing).. it would be like a Mela in those days when the rivulet overflowed. That phenomenon was called (puer/पूर or flooding). We didn't care whether it rained or not out picnics were always "on" on Savan Somwaars. I am not sure but I think this used to happen outside the school timings or I won't be surprised if we were given short leaves from schools. This was like continuation of our holiday/joy season.

Between July till March, that is almost the full time that school was in session we have one festival or other in India. Rarely a week will pass when there is no festival that we celebrated. Savan will culminate into rakhee and eight days later there would be janamashtmi, 12 days after that would be Ganesh Chaturthi and 10 days later there will Ganapati Visarjan ( Anant Chatursashi/chaudas) and so on and so forth until mid to end March with Holi. From Ganesh Chaturthi to Anant Chatursashi/chaudas all 10 days is a big Ganesh festival across the country especially in Maharashtra and western Madhya Pradesh. ( In those days outside these two states the fervour was not such in other states, thanks to Bollywood that glamourised these festivities and now entire country celebrates these festivals with similar enthusiasm). 

Indian freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak championed this large scale Ganesh utsav as a means to circumvent the colonial British government ban on Hindu gatherings through its anti-public assembly legislation in 1892. Since then the 10 day festivity culminating into a big procession running through the city marked the end of the festival. Pune was the first city to have these huge processions with tableaus on relevant topics mounted on large vehicles.

Indore adopted this in time immemorial, soon after Pune and no one told me when, but ever since I was remember I had heard about these processions in Indore. Indore was one of the main textile centres of the country. I think it had largest number of textile mills after Ahmedabad and Bombay, unlike Pune that had no textile mill worth mentioning. Every textile mill had its tableaus in these processions and each mill will have about a dozen or more exhibit mounted on different vehicles. Each one will be on some theme or other that would be a message on current social or political subject or statues of several gods and goddesses including Lord Ganesha whose idol will be immersed next morning with loud chants "ganapati bappa moriya" (oh lord! we worship you as our father) in some localities people would add "pudhachya varshi laukar ya" (come soon again next year). The whole city will turn into an exhibition ground and people will queue up on both sides of the route and also on the windows and terraces from 4.00pm onwards that would be not less than 10 kilometer long from start to finish, although the first jhanki/ tableau of Hukumchand Mills will come to Jail Road not earlier than 10.00pm and the last one of Swadeshi Mills between 4.00am and 5.00am depending on how smoothly the procession went. Ahead of every set of tableau there would be a team of dancers, some with lejhims and some other with different kind of bells, dhols and other musical instruments. They will stop at every 300-400 meters and gyrate with full energy. This will allow people to enjoy not just their dances but also look at the tableaus closely.  Entire route will be barricaded with ropes and volunteers of different mohalla committees will be monitoring the discipline of the crowd. This will also be chance for mobile vendors to sell various wares not just food. There would also be some food stalls and other souvenirs in by-lanes. Overall this was a huge festival for Indore city where people would come not just from the city but from nearby villages and towns as far as 60-100 Kilometers with their families especially small children. Usually this day would come in September sometime in the beginning and in some others a bit later in the month depending on hindu calendar. Besides Pune and Indore the only other major city where the entire city would celebrate this immersion is Bombay (now Mumbai). One could always debate whether it started first in Indore or in Bombay to celebrate at such large scale. But Bombay till date doesn't have the tableau procession on this day.. they just have large statues from various festival committees usually crowding around Chaupati where often the crowd will be unmanageable and stampedes would cause accidents, some fatal, every year.

I was 10 and had not seen this "must see" event till then and the curiosity was building every year with parents promising us to take to Indore . From Betma whoever could go to Indore, went, and returned the next morning. All the buses that plied on that route as well as some "tempos", (a large three wheeler passenger vehicle that had a capacity to carry 10 people but often would have 40 or more people on such occasions, would be packed to the brim. 

That year a few weeks before the ganesh chaturdashi day, I had overheard some older friends planning to go to Indore to see the jhanki, this was the time to quench the curiosity that was building up since many years. So, I told one group that I will also join them, no one knew at home what was going on on my mind and these friends who had planned this visit, did not want to take any additional responsibility but they didn't say so. Come the day and I was home and saw this group moving towards bus stand that's when I realised they may be planning to ditch me. I wasn't even ready.. I quickly dressed up and ran towards the bus stand but that may have taken 10 minutes or so and I saw them boarding a bus, from a distance, that was ready to head in Indore's direction. Seeing me I suppose they told driver to move immediately and before I could reach the door to enter, the bus had started moving with the speed I couldn't catch. I saw my friends in the bus and shouted at them asking them to stop the bus to take me.. but they obviously had other plans and gestured at me as if it is the bus conductor who has taken off and they can do nothing about it. I ran and ran after the bus hoping it to stop someplace to allow me to board. I must have run for over 2 kilometers till the next village but by then I couldn't see them. Angry and crying profusely and also exhausted with my sprint run, I sat down.. it was still daylight just about 3.00pm or so. After a while dejected, I started walking home taking my shattered dreams with me to fulfil next year.  

Pictures downloaded from Internet public domain.