Ganesh

Here is a picture of the Ganesh Temple that is right on our street corner. It is the most popular god that is worshiped in Pune and they have one of the largest festivals for it here. It is the elephant god and they burn incense in front of the temple, leave floral necklaces for him, and place offerings in that urn to the right. They also leave food, sweets, & coconuts for him to "eat" thinking that since they gave him something, he will help them with something (good luck on a test, making more money that day, etc.) Those bells at the top are rung to wake him up, also.

Most people will have a small ganesh idol in their home or car that they also pray and give offerings to. There are around 300 million gods in the Hindu religion so most Hindus will just pick a few of their favorite gods to worship.

This is what the temple looks like a little further back. It is still decorated with the flowers and curtains from the holiday yesterday. This is a very busy corner with little shops all around.

This is a picture of our next door neighbor's door. They have the ganesh idol decorating their door and then all around the door post are little Hindu symbols. You see this on many doors in our apartment complex.