[Tejas@perioimpl]

Festive season is around the corner and we love to do puja and put garlands on our cars. I personally hate to do the above but i have to bow to family pressure.

Putting a swastika:

During the puja, my family will put a hindu swastika with the red colour kanku (as called in gujarati). Nowadays, the compounds used in these are so bad that they don’t come off easily. So now i’ve made it a rule to do a small one on one corner of the windshield which i remove within an hour with a damp cloth.

Incense Sticks:

After the puja, my mom sometimes lights the incense sticks and sticks it where ever she gets a good “hold”. Once, she stuck them around a beading of the honda windshield and due to wind, the incense stick touched the beading and left a burn line around 4cms along the length of the beading. After this, the use of incense sticks has been banned for my cars.

Garlanding:

I hate to garland the car but unfortunately i have no options. Garlands in my building are usually tied by the servants early in the morning when the “haarwala” delivers them.
The servants apply their limited knowledge and usually tie it to the wiper stalks. This leaves me irritated since if you need to use the wipers, they interfere and the garland balloons over the windshield.

After putting a stop to this, they started tying it to the front grill. I still don’t like it since when you go a moderate speeds, the garland inverts and flies onto the bonnet. I find that annoying as well. Now my servants are instructed to use another string and bog down the center of the garland to any point on the body below the number plate.

They are also instructed to tie the garland only using the bow type knot so it’s easy to remove. I’ve seen numerous cars with remnants of the thread of garlands still attached to the car since someone has just pulled the garland out the next day.

A new servant put the garland on the i10 yesterday (tied to the wiper stalks) and a funny thing happened.

I was driving along the Worli seaface at a good speed (worli seaface has a nice long concrete road leading to the sea link- for people not familiar with the area). The windscreen was a little hazy due to the salt water spray from the sea and i instinctive used the windshield washer just to realize that the garland was attached to it. Anyways, i cursed the servant and continued driving along.

I guess this action must have weakened the thread of the garland and as i increased speed, the garland mushroomed onto my windshield (mightily annoying me and obstructing my vision) and then snapped from the centre. At this point i was happy since the garland was now fluttering on either side of the ORVMs rather than the center of the glass (see attached pic below). I was too bored to stop and get out of the car to remove the garland.



After a few meters of driving, i see in the in the rear view mirror that cars behind me are swerving wildly. It takes me a couple of seconds to realize that the marigold flowers are being hurled behind as projectiles from the broken garland and the vehicles behind me are taking extreme evasive maneuvers. This had me in splits and i pulled over and finally removed the garland!

Got home and checked where they put the garland on the merc and the servant had again tied it to the wiper stalks and had forced the center part around the star and nearly bend it backwards. Fired the living daylights out of him and removed the said garland! Now the rule in house is either no garlands, or wait for me to wake up and put it on the car.

So, what do you do for puja? Where do you attach the garland and how?

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

So, what do you do for puja? Where do you attach the garland and how?

All the things you have described above. I attach the garland as shown in the image below in my Maruti Swift.


Original picture of Maruti Swift engine bay is taken from one of the posts in Team-Bhp.

-Biju

[shankar.balan]

Your post had me in splits too just now when I read it.

Indeed while travelling at a reasonable speed, if one suddenly observes something which looks like a series of "James Bond-ian" offensive projectiles emanating from a vehicle in front of one, then one can, I believe, be excused for taking extreme evasive action! Only trouble happens if while taking such evasive action one ends up pranging the vehicle on the median or restraining wall or worse, another vehicle.

But on a more serious note - I like having a small puja done for the vehicles etc but typically what I do is to shorten the length of the garland to a more manageable level of about 15-18 inches or so. this is placed typically with the ends just inside the bonnet area and the bonnet is dropped on top of the ends so that it stays. because of its short length, it doesnt cause trouble either to me or to vehicles behind me.

While the puja per se is perfectly fine, the incense sticks are a strict no -no on account of potential burn/ fire hazard to fabrics, rubber etc.

I prefer not to have the Swastika and other such visual representations drawn on the vehicle - much happier with small individual spots on all sides and doors, windshield, rear glass etc of the vehicle - made with sandal paste and a bit of vermillion on top of that.

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

Festive season is around the corner and we love to do puja and put garlands on our cars. I personally hate to do the above but i have to bow to family pressure.

After a few meters of driving, i see in the in the rear view mirror that cars behind me are swerving wildly. It takes me a couple of seconds to realize that the marigold flowers are being hurled behind as projectiles from the broken garland and the vehicles behind me are taking extreme evasive maneuvers. This had me in splits and i pulled over and finally removed the garland!

Got home and checked where they put the garland on the merc and the servant had again tied it to the wiper stalks and had forced the center part around the star and nearly bend it backwards. Fired the living daylights out of him and removed the said garland! Now the rule in house is either no garlands, or wait for me to wake up and put it on the car.

So, what do you do for puja? Where do you attach the garland and how?

[aargee]

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

Festive season is around the corner and we love to do puja and put garlands on our cars. I personally hate to do the above but i have to bow to family pressure...
So, what do you do for puja? Where do you attach the garland and how?

Lol

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

While the puja per se is perfectly fine, the incense sticks are a strict no -no on account of potential burn/ fire hazard to fabrics, rubber etc

+1000...

I firmly believe that this type of festives are for people who're lazy in maintaining (or even washing) their rides through the year.

I take care of all my 3 rides every day of the year & hence there's nothing to tie up a garland or incense stick or even tie young plantain tree to the sides of the bus.

Yesterday I witnessed an Indigo having sandals on the window glasses & I'm sure that would've blocked his vision on the ORVM's. Why can't the moron rely on himself on riding/driving rather than doing puja on his vehicle to be safe?

Having said this, am I an atheist? Nope, I'm not; but I'm against the idea of mixing rides to spirituality AND applying such things. May be a wash is sufficient or may be applying the sandals at front & back (not blocking the vision) is sufficient or a small flower or garland's sufficient, but not to the extent to block the vision.

Having said this, y'day I witnessed an accident; a fully "decorated" MTC bus with an Indica that wasn't decorated. Who's to be blamed? The one who did puja or the one without?

[vkochar]

Nothing of this sort at all for me. The max my mum does is place a small flower near the idol ( which is sai baba ) in my verna. Nothing else, no garland or swastika or anything.

[ghodlur]

In my case the puja usually revolves around applying small pecks of Haldi & kumkum (dry) all around the car but definitely no swastika sign. I have a garland of flowers usually put and the strings tied at an accesible location inside the bay area with flowers hanging outside on the air dam but not on the bonnet. I have seen people putting garlands on the wipers and whenever they rev the garland comes bang on the front wind screen. So much for festivities.

Even I have a small Ganesh idol inside the car and a micro puja done. When it comes to my car, Its I who always has the last say.

[funkydevil]

Nice post Tejas, I too feel irritated when religion comes in between me and my ride.

I like the car to be clean and clear from both inside and outside, looking just like it came out of the factory. A swastika/garland on my car during festivities gives me nightmares

[libranof1987]

Whenever it comes to garlanding the cars, we make it a point to tie them at the straps just below the windsheild (i.e. the strip between the hood and windshield); that way, it does not hinder the wipers.

OT but feel like mentioning since we are discussing garlanding the cars :

Once, after Dusara, we'd gone out for a drive to Mulshi dam (off Pune) and en route stopped at a dhaba for snacks. There was a herd of goats passing by and a smart one could smell the sunflower (Zandu flowers). It climbed atop the bonnet and had a hearty snack! Others merrily followed. On the drive back, just the thread remained!!