Strange Sights

There's never a lack of interesting scenery here in Bangalore. The latest oddity was this past week which was the festival of Ganesha. Ganesha is an idol (and a lord to Hindu's). I believe he is thought to bring success and from what I gather the festival is celebrated in South India. Well hundreds of little hot pink ganesha idols were for sale on many street curbs the past couple of weeks. Not that we aren't used to seeing idols living here but this one looks like a pink elephant man . It just made my stomach turn to see these little ceramic idols lined up by the scores. And scattered around town are shrines set up with life size ganesha's where people come to worship before it. From what I understand the idol is immersed in a lake or body of water before it is put in it's shrine/tent. Then as we drove around during the week, at different times, I saw tractor trailers with a large idol and lots of young men sitting in the trailer. I guess it's like a one float parade? Festival season is upon Bangalore which means the next few months will be one after another of idol worship so it shouldn't really be a surprise to see all of this...it's just very disheartening. I'm posting a picture of what a ganesha idol looks like...not to glorify it or make more of it than any other idol...but to show you how creepy the thing looks!:) I'm sorry to offend any Hindu's that may be reading this, but when you don't grow up around idols and you don't believe in them it's just a bit eerie.