I traveled to Ulsoor Lake yesterday near Mahatma Gandhi Rd., also known as M.G. Rd., in Bangalore to witness the public immersion of many Lord Ganesha idols, both small and large. Ulsoor Lake is in the northeast part of the city, approximately 1.5 square kilometers. Some people come to the lake for boating. But there is also a make-shift lake tank that serves as the venue for the immersion of Ganesha idols during Ganesh Chaturthi. Crowds gathered around the gated tank to watch the idols immersed into the water. The larger idols came on big trucks or tractors in a procession with music. The immersions continued after dark, but I only stayed until dusk. The slide show below covers the all aspects and various sizes of Ganesha idols immersed into the water.
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I appreciated the discussion, as I was coming to work this morning, of not hesitating to pay for comfort, if it is within means. I was traveling with someone from my building, whose factory is about two km. from my Institute. He has offered to take me to work, since it is so close to his business. For me, this is a blessing as I can get to work, door-to-door. I will still take the faculty van home, because I get a chance to socialize with my colleagues and it’s also quite comfortable. This morning we took the Nice Rd. (toll road) to Mysore Road (as we usually do), which is a smooth ride. I appreciate the highways that have been developed, since my travels here during my childhood. My memories of traveling through India by road have always been a bumpy ride where I felt like I could suffer from a slipped-disc in my vertebrae. It was even said in the car this morning that Americans do not hesitate to pay for comfort, where Indians won’t hesitate to save money where they can. This is a significant cultural difference between the two countries, primarily derived by their socio-economic differences.
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Indira S. Somani, Ph.D. is an Independent Documentary Filmmaker. After a 26-year-career as a television newscast producer and broadcast journalism professor, Somani moved to LA and enrolled in the MFA in Directing/Production, Documentary film program at UCLA. Currently in production is a personal documentary about her role as a caregiver for her Mom who battles depression. The film reveals how much Somani and her mother rely on each other for emotional support. Other films Somani has directed and produced include Life on the Ganges (2017), a 10- minute documentary directed, produced and filmed in Varanasi, India, during Dev Diwali, when people from all over India travel there to bathe in the Ganges River. The film screened in film festivals in the U.S., India and Europe and won Best Short Documentary at the Berlin Independent Film Festival, and the Cannes Short Film Festival. Another film Somani directed, produced and wrote was, Crossing Lines (2007), a 30-minute personal essay documentary about her struggle to stay connected to India after the loss of her father and to maintain and preserve her Indian cultural identity. The film won numerous awards, screened in film festivals nationally and internationally, aired on PBS affiliates through NETA from 2008-2011, and has been used by more than 100 universities as a tool to teach intercultural communication in the classroom. Both films are in distribution through New Day films.
Somani’s doctoral research studied the media habits and effects of satellite television on the Indian diaspora, specifically the generation of the Asian Indians in the Washington, DC metro area, who migrated to the U.S. between 1960 and 1972. She expanded her research to study the media habits, acculturation, and social identity of the same generation in the New York-New Jersey area, San Francisco, Houston and Chicago. For the fall of 2011, Somani was awarded a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellowship to study the Western influence of Indian programming in India.
While teaching at Howard University’s School of Communications from 2012-2021, Somani’s research shifted to study Black Broadcast Journalists and how race had an impact on their success in the newsroom. She has been published in several academic journals and has also co-authored two book chapters.
Somani’s academic career was preceded by 10 years as a television news producer, most notably with CNBC and WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C. Somani has also been a leader of the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA), where she has also won several “Outstanding” awards for her coverage of South Asians in North America. Prior to teaching at Howard, Somani taught journalism at Washington and Lee University (Lexington, VA) and American University’s School of Communication (Washington, DC). Somani earned her Master’s in Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University in 1993, and her Ph.D. from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park in 2008. Somani is expected to earn her MFA in Directing/Production from UCLA by Dec. of 2022.