www.alwal.org

As this is the 24th Year of Ganesh festival celebrations at Ramnagar Colonywe are working on a community information resource website for our hometown alwal. It's was formally launched on 1st Sep 2006 . This site will be designed and hosted by a team of Volunteers with whatever little webdesigning skills they have. Do check back on 8th Sep we would be putting up a fullscale image gallery of Various Ganesh idols throughout the city. Hope you like the images of Alwal

Ganesh Festival Celebrations 2006

We have also put some images at www.alwal.org , last sunday 3-Sep-06 our friends along with the colony members arranged a community lunch .

We

Hi friends, After a long time myself and some friends teamed up to join the Ganesh Immersion procession at Alwal,Hyderabad and had hell of a time. This was one the most coulourful days in the year 2005. I would like share the joy and some pics of the Ganesh Immersion event for all our friends away from Home and with the Alwal Community. I had joined the procession at 9.00 PM on 17th Sep and along with thounsands of friends and devotees completed the immersion of the lords Idol at Tank Bund [Hussain Sagar] at around 9.00 AM. In this blog you will see some photo's taken by me during these 12 Hours, with my Nokia 6600. Do leave your comments and if you have any pictures you can post on this. This site is dedicated to all my Alwal friends Ramu,Chinni, Kumar, Reddy, Vinay, Giri, Rajesh, Bala, Srikanth,Chikoo,TD, Bujja, Suru, Shiv Kumar,Narayan, Praveen, Rajaram, Ramprasad, Nani, sanan, Nittu,John, Sunny,Poonam, Mukku, Manu, Kaaaaaasi Jr. , Kasi Sr., Vijju,Vinod, Kittu, Vikram,kartik and every body else. This blog is also dedicated to our friends, Dinakar, Ramesh and Shankar,who could not join the immersion procession and every body else who is away from their homes in Alwal and also Kudos to Dasaram Venkat Reddy for his support.

The Festival of Ganesh Chaturthi at Alwal

The birth of Lord Ganesh is on the 4th day of the bright half of Bhadrapad (August/September). This day is also Known as Ganesh Chaturthi or Vinayaka Chavithi. The festival is celebrated for Ten days from Ganesh chaturthi till Anantchaturdashi - the final 10th day of his immersion. Everyone loves this deity with his curving trunk, Huge pot-belly and big ears. The Lord is a Protector of the innocent and destructor of the evil. The People of all communities celebrate the festival with Lot of Joy, Devotion and brother hood in Hyderabad. In Awal,Hyderabad the Festival ends with the Immersion processions mainly towards the Majestic Hussain Saagar lake also Known as Tank Bund and there would be around one Million People taking part in this event every year.

The people of Ram Nagar Colony-Alwal

Kumar Came all the way from Vizag to catch up with friends We are a bunch of friends at Ramnagar colony, Alwal, Trimulgherry, Secunderabad and we have been organising the ganesh Pooja every year and this year was our 24th Anniversary. I don't have pictures of everybody here. L to R Rajaram, Praveen,Narayan, ramprasad and giri on extreme corners Giri L and Ramu R

TEEN MAAR " Tippiri Tippiri "

On 17th Sep ,Typically like every year we completed the pooja on the 11th day evening around 6.30 pm we had engaged around 10 professional drummers and the people just couldn't stop reaching the Park were our Pandal was located. The moment we hear the high decibel Drum beats Called the 'Teen Maar' ,most of the kids and our friends start dancing almost involuntarily . The 'Teen maar' is performed on a variety of drums by experienced people whom we call 'Dappulu Olu'. The Music which is the poor mans "Heavy metal"is very delighting with it's high energy. Located at the far corner of the park, the loud speakers would churn out songs like Deva ho Deva and Sundar Sundar naam, continuously. Unlike other pandals, we have decided not to Bother residents of Alwal with high noise levels this year.

The Grease Pole

1700 Hrs 17th Sep 2005 At 6.30 PM the Majestic Ganesh idol is moved from the pandal towards the Huge Trailer with People from All corners shouting Ganapathi Bappa Moriyaa The Trailer which has been painstakingly decorated with Flowers, Bells, Diyaas and Big Halogen Lamps was Looking like a Magnificent Temple ready to Move. 1900 Hrs Now it's time for 'The Grease Pole Event'. This is a weird celebration cum competition held in most parts of Secunderabad and Hyderabad during the Ganesh Immersion Day. This event runs for around 30 mins, where young men form a pyramid to reach the Top of a Metallic Pole, where a Matka loaded with some goodies like a Coconut, Sweets, and some money. The Pole is embalmed with Thick layers of Grease or , Butter of Ghee to make it difficult for the climbers to reach the Top, hence the event is called as Grease Pole. There would be Two teams One would constantly try to reach the Top and the Others would try to make it difficult for the climbers by throwing streams of waters with various containers.

The Procession " Ganapathi Bappa Moriyaa" -Alwal

"OUR COLONY'S GANESH IDOL" 2000 Hrs We are all set to proceed Towards Hussain Sagar Lake from Ramnagar Colony ,Alwal. This is the Most Exciting moment in the whole Ganesh Immersion Event. It's a 12 Hour Journey to Reach the 15 Odd Kms from our place as thousands of Idols arrive from Various parts of the City and surounding districts. The Moment the Trailer moves from our Pandal, The drum beats would start and in a few moments thousands of Devotees were gathered around our Vehicle to have a view of our Ganesh Idol. I could see lot of Kids, Women and Older people emotionally watching the Ganesh idol moving away in the Trailer. " BOOM" , suddenly the dark sky got lighted up with the 240 shots rocket, the spectacle was awesome, as if millions of small diyas were smiling at us from the sky, our hearts filled with Joy and we all thanked Lord Ganesha for bringing us together for the Gala Event. Now, it's time to Give a nice send off to the Lord and Crackers light up the sky and bursts of the '10000 wala' crackers . for safety reasons the power was cut off for 30 Mins and there were around 50 people dancing in front of the Trailer to the tune of 'teen maar' and the whole area was charged with energy, Sweets and Prasadam were distributed to all the devotees who came to have a glimpse of the lord.

The Carnival of Over One Million People

Rajaram [yellow T]Joined The spectators for a while 0000 Hrs to 0700 18th Sep As were reaching tank bund the view of the Road ahead was absolutely Enthralling , there were thousands of Vehicles Lined up in the traffic towards Tank Bund . Scores of Lorries, Tractors and Trailers with thousands of Halogen Lamps, Generators and expensive Decorations were still moving towards tank Bund from All corners of the city. The two Processions from Alwal, are eagerly awaited by the residents of Ramgopalpet and Kingsway circle for a glimpse every year, they never stop appreciating the intricate decoration we do to our vehicle and our Ganapathy Bappa. This year people brought idols with various Themes and thousands of people/ volunteers dressed up in various costumes Like ‘Chatrapathi Shivaji’ , Lord Ram, Hanuman , and many characters from the ramayan. Lord Shiva, destroying couple of Rakshasas. There were also couple of walt Disney characters which brought in lot of colour to the carnival .

Some Pictures of the Lord and People

Shinde Jr. from Alwal Had a nice sleep all the way till tank bund Ramu With His Son Hehehe Not an ET Visitor Hmmm Back to The Future

Lord ganesh Some Photos from Other Locations

The last few Hours of Ganesh Immersion

We were about to enter the Tank Bund bridge, we were asked to take a diversion towards the Viceroy hotel as there was heavy traffic on the bridge. We had to take a longer trip of 6 Kms and 5 Hours for us to reach the Crane number 11 for immersion. Pic: snap of an Hyderabadi Auto Zooming past us We reached tank-bund at 8.10 AM .We got some time to rest and have Tea before reaching crane , around this Time our Counsellor and Friend Shiv Kumar had to attend an emergency at Home. The Authorities made some innovative arrangements like Emergency Ambulances and Two wheelers from Global Hospitals.Unfortunately, there were very few toilets for the visitors and people had to make use of the Bushes and trees along the foot path of the Bridge. And also some times the cops were little rude to the vehicle drivers during the final moments of Immersion as they were redirected here and there randomly. The residents of Alwal were thankful to Hyderabad Police and MCH as they were working day and night towards making the festival end peacefully. Amazingly at 9.30 A.M while taking an exit road we could see the MG road area swept absolutely clean without any litter, about 4 hours back tons of plastics, paper and dirt was left by passing Vehicles. Kudos to all the workers who spend the night sweeping the roads to keep the city clean and Green. Common guys ! letz think twice before littering our neighbourhood. I think there were some issues which the organizers , Police, APSEB and MCH could have taken care for the procession with a little more focus like repairing the pot holes on roads, Cutting down Obstructing tree branches,Taking care of Electric wires and cables, provide toilets at Various places around the Tank-Bund area and every body should be educated with signboards and TV commercials not to litter the areas and reduce pollution by avoiding noise making crackers or adopting more environment friendly materials for the festival, as the beautiful Tank Bund area deserves a better treatment by Us. At around 0830 AM Our Ganesh Idol was picked Up by the crane and lifted Towards the lake, My friend sanan was standing standstill emotionally as tears ran down with some sweet and Sour memories of the past few weeks. Well, We were tired after the immersion we started our Journey to home on the huge Trailer, every body was feeling sleepy Sleepy ! Well Me Too: -Srinivas Bala