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W hat better way to celebrate the
festival of Ganesh Chaturthi
than by making it the most creative
and enjoyable event of the year?
That’s what Aruna and Santosh Joshi,
avid readers of Life Positive, discov-
ered when they made their idol out
of clay at home. It wasn’t easy; they
had to hunt for the clay but found
it near their house. What followed
Aruna and Santosh's eco-Ganapati
V inodini Lulla , of Children’s
Movement for Civic Awareness
(CMCA), is currently beginning her
Silent Diwali campaign where she
brings about awareness in children
on how to celebrate a pollution-free
Diwali. CMCA promotes an environ-
ment friendly way of living, and a
very good way to incorporate this
is through children.
Working with around 20 schools in
Mumbai, Vinodini and her team educate
youngsters on the principle of live and let
live. Festivals are an occasion of celebra-
tion and joy, not another burden on the
environment. CMCA is trying to spread
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Eco-Ganapati
was the memorable and thoroughly
enjoyable process of making the idol
with their own hands, at home. Made
of 35 kg of clay and water, coloured
by sindhur and oil, using diamonds
as eyes, in the Lenyadri cave atmos-
phere complete with a waterfall, the
Ganapati idol exhibited grandeur and
originality. This completely natural
and bio-degradable Ganapati
was later immersed, but left no scar
on the environment.
Other ways to be environmentally
responsible is using newspaper and
some glue to make a papier-mâché
idol. Using clay and wheat flour is
another innovative way of doing so.
Idols were made of clay and adorned
by natural colours earlier, but since
plaster of Paris is easier to mould
and lighter it has gained popularity.
The day after the immersion, large
Green Diwali
awareness about the harmful effects of
firecrackers. They produce pollution of
three kinds – noise, air and garbage.
Arousing a civic sense is a great task and
children are learning how to coexist with
the more silent part of our society – our
elderly, our sick and the animals.
It's only when we understand that
festivals are to celebrate the joy of life
and not pollute ourselves that things
will change. Vinodini is optimistic, and
with the result she has got she should
be. Last year 60 per cent of children
she worked with said they burst less
firecrackers or none at all – no mean
feat. Campaigns include public aware-
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amounts of debris is found on the
beaches; and the acidity levels of the
sea rise considerably because of the
mercury, cadmium and other metals
in the paints.
Going back to the natural way is
important and there are plenty of ways
to do so when it comes to Ganesh
Chaturthi. A return to clay idols is
the most direct step. Avoiding artifi-
cial colours is another important way.
Using stone or metal idols that could
be used repeatedly year after year, and
symbolically immersing it is a meth-
od many are adopting. Immersion is
symbolic of the cycle of creation and
destruction, where an artificial water
body or even your bucket at home
would suffice. Conscious celebrating
would also include music played at
moderate levels so as not to disturb
the neighbourhood.
ness with banners and posters being
made and displayed by the children.
Eco-friendly Ganesh idols were also
part of their campaign. Just after the
Ganesh immersion, CMCA organised
clean-up drives along Mumbai’s beach-
es and met with great success. “There
are high levels of enthusiasm in all our
campaigns and drives”, says Vinodini.
The inner realisation that occurs when
children have a hands-on experience is
phenomenal. They understand that it
is in their hands to help build a better
and greener planet.
Contact: Vinodini Lulla: (022) 23510903,
www.cmcaindia.org

Mystic musings
T he Psychic Fair – Mystic Musings
– held at the World Trade Center
in Mumbai on September 5 and 6, was
a great energy exchange for the city’s
occult-minded. Drawing great num-
bers on both days the fair allowed
practitioners and enthusiasts to min-
gle with each other and learn about
the various forms of divination.
Although tarot readers were the
most prominent amongst the practi-
tioners, there were stalls on astrology,
gemmology, numerology, reiki, rune
stones, I-Ching, dowsing, intuition hyp-
notherapy, theta healing, Vastu Shastra,
graphology, colour dance therapy, angel
therapy, chakra balancing, feng shui,
crystal healing, and Wicca. Quite a treat
Esogetic medicine
E sogetic Holistic Medicine according
to its founder, Peter Mandel, is a
self-contained complementary healing
system, which originated from new ways
of thinking and associating. Its unique
information/energy diagnosis creates
the base for entirely new approaches
to therapy. He has gained incredible
energy insights into the human body by
researching and consequently develop-
ing Kirlian photography.
The diagnosis is done through
a method called Energy Emission
Analysis, where through a modified
form of Kirlian photography the body’s
energy is analysed. Here the ailment’s
true cause is found and even future
ailments can be found out. It shows
the level – physical, emotional, or
mental – to be addressed.
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for the esoterically aligned! Chief guest
and celebrity tarot reader, Lara Shah,
talked about her entry into the world of
divination and a few tips she has picked
up along the way. This was followed
by an array of talks by practitioners on
some of the above topics.
Some came with a burning desire
to have their future foretold, others
in search of a deeper truth, and a
few out of curiosity. The venue being
packed on both days goes to show the
growing interest in the subtle regions
of life. One could feel the energy flow-
ing at the fair. With the encouraging
response that it received, we hope to
see many more similar initiatives all
over the country in the future.
The main type of treatment is colour
puncture. Instead of using needles as in
acupuncture, a pen light with a choice
of eleven slim glass rods of different
colours is used. The coloured light is
focused on acupuncture points on
the skin in order to energise power-
ful healing impulses. The memories of
past events and traumas are held in our
cells, influencing the way we respond,
physically and psychologically, to events
in the present. The light can unlock the
root causes of stress, pain and disease,
buried deeply in the subconscious or
other trauma in the body. Other types
of treatment include induction holistic
therapy, crystal vision, esogetic herb oil,
dream disc and colour sound therapy.
Contact: Deepa Kalra:
deepakalra@hotmail.de
www.esogetics.com
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H ave you heard of the fun children’s
festival of Halloween, where kids
dress up as witches, wizards and
demons? Did you know that it is one
of the most important days for real
witches around the world? Halloween,
called Samhain (pronounced sow-en)
among the Wiccan community, is a
Wiccan sabbath. This cross-quarter day
(roughly midway between the autumn
equinox and winter solstice) is the
most important day in the Wiccan cal-
endar, even celebrated by some as ‘the
witch’s new year’.
Samhain is a day of mystery and real
magick. On this day, the veil between
the two realms — seen and unseen
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Trick or treat?
— is the thinnest, and every magickal
(–k is added to differentiate the occult
form from stage magic) ritual and
energy work has even greater power.
The Wiccans follow both a solar as well
as lunar calendar but celebrate solar
events as the ‘Turning of the wheel of
the year’. The solar calendar divides the
year into two parts, the light half and
the dark half, and October 31 marks the
beginning of the dark half of the year.  breaking the peel, and let the peel fall
If you witness a Wiccan get-togeth-
er on Halloween, you’ll see that none
will raise an eyebrow when the Dance
of the Dead is begun, nor will anyone
flinch when asked to invite their dear
departed ancestors into the gathering.
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These are normal parts of the ritual in
which the dead are honoured, thanked
and even celebrated for the life that they
have given us.
Since the air is so full of magic and
the veil between realms is thin, every-
one gets down to psychic work. “My
favourite bit of Samhain folklore is
finding your lover’s name on an apple
peel: Peel the apple all the way without
on to the floor. The letter that the peel
forms is the initial of your true love,”
says Sangeeta Krishnan, a practising
Wiccan from Mumbai, who is adept at
other forms of divination too such as
tarot, runestones and scrying.