Well, what do you know! Ganapati Bappa is back in town.
It’s Ganesh Chaturthi.
Sept 14th begins this year’s Ganesh puja. As is my custom, I try to recall some story regarding Ganesh that I had heard as a child. We Hindus, Buddhists and Jains grow up listening to stories about our devas and devis.
Ganesh is definitely my favorite deva. He is described as “the one with the curved trunk and an immense body, whose splendour is equal to that of a million suns.” He is invoked before any other gods. There’s a story about that. Before starting any venture, he is asked to “remove all obstacles from my tasks, always and in all undertakings.”
In previous posts, I have related the story of how he got a broken tusk, how he very cleverly circumnavigated the entire cosmos three times in a minute, and other things. This time I will relate the story of Kubera’s feast. Continue reading “Ganesh Chaturthi 2026”
Instances of mass hysteria, herd behavior, and financial bubbles may seem to be modern afflictions though actually they have been around for hundreds of years. In 1841, Scottish journalist Charles Mackay investigated them and published his findings in his 1841 book “Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.”
