Ganesh chaturthi and Herons nest

The 10-day long Ganesh chaturthi celebrations began on Thursday, officially ushering in the festival season. This year, though, the fervor has been much dampened by torrential rains of the past one week.The good part is that the sound of rain has drowned out the loudspeakers, bad part is that once there is a lull in the rain and the crackers start, they won't stop for a long time!





According to Hindu mythology, Ganesha is the son of Lord Shiva and Parvati and there are many stories regarding how he got his elephant-head.The unusually large head also signifies an extraordinary amount of intelligence! But on another level,Ganesh is associated with the root or mooladhara chakra in the subtle body. which is the first energy centre that represents the earth element, providing a solid foundation for material life. That is why He is the first god to be worshipped always before embarking on any spiritual, religious or worldly venture.




On a personal note, Lord Ganesh has been kind to me this year, bringing with him the heron's nest editor's choice award. That is the kind of stuff I sometimes daydreamt about(when i saw other poets featured in that hallowed space) knowing fully well this was going to remain only that, a dream.But well, the editors found my poem worthy of a special commentary from Scott Mason and I would really like to thank him for that wonderful commentary! I have also been lucky to have Paul Macneil as my editor, who has been one of the sweetest editors I have come across in my brief haiku journey, if I may say so!



The Heron's Nest September issue is full of lovely poetry,many of them by poets whom I have come to know through the NaHaiWriMo site on Facebook...do check it out! Though I am yet to go through it fully, I liked this one by Cara Holman, for its layers underlying the deceptively simple lines:

fine mist
he says frogs
I say crickets

Of the many other wonderful poetry I have read in the past few days, here is another one

sandcastles...
her youngest daughter
calls me daddy

Colin Stewart Jones.

And finally, this one-liner by Kala Ramesh which she wrote at the end of an email to me:

where forest meets river the night of fireflies

We have come a long way from Ganapati festival, haven't we?
Have a great weekend...all of you!