What starts as a conversation about Ganesh Chaviti quickly turns into a trip through our childhoods in India β the festivals, family traditions, schools, religion, and beliefs that shaped the way we see the world today.
Vishnu remembers growing up with stories of Ganesha, waking up early with the neighborhood kids to collect patri for the puja, visiting different Ganesh celebrations, and the excitement surrounding the festival and Nimajjanam.
And, of course, he somehow manages to personally identify with Ganesha because of one childhood incident involving way too much sambar rice. π
From there, we go back to our school days. Both of us attended Christian/convent schools while growing up Hindu, leading to some funny β and surprisingly meaningful β memories about nuns, church, cricket, prayer, and learning about different religions while still practicing our own traditions.
The conversation eventually becomes bigger than Ganesh Chaviti.
We talk about why Hindu traditions use physical representations of God, what rituals meant to us as children versus what they mean to us now, and what it was like growing up in an India where Hindu, Christian and Muslim traditions could all be part of your everyday life.
Later, we get into Jyotisha, astrology, faith and belief β including how our relationship with these ideas has changed over time and whether sometimes the power of belief itself can give people reassurance when life feels uncertain.
And Mahitha shares a prediction she was once given about the person she would eventually marry⦠which becomes especially interesting considering she ended up marrying someone named Vishnu.
In this episode:
- Celebrating Ganesh Chaviti growing up in India
- Vishnu's childhood connection to Ganesha β and sambar rice π
- Family pujas and childhood festival traditions
- Waking up early to collect patri for Ganesha
- Ganesh idols and the tradition of Nimajjanam
- What religious rituals meant to us as children
- Growing up Hindu while attending Christian/convent schools
- Nuns, cricket and unforgettable school memories
- Being exposed to different religions while growing up in India
- Hinduism, Christianity and the interfaith experiences we remember
- Why people use images and idols as part of prayer
- How our understanding of religion changes as we get older
- Jyotisha, astrology and traditional beliefs
- The psychology of faith and reassurance
- The surprising prediction Mahitha received about her future husband
This episode is less about explaining religion and more about remembering what it actually felt like to grow up around these traditions β before we started questioning, analyzing and trying to understand them as adults.
If you grew up in India, how much of this feels familiar to you?
And if you're raising kids outside India, which traditions from your childhood are you trying to keep alive?
Fly & Butterfly is a conversation between Vishnu and Mahitha about marriage, family, culture, comedy, growing up Indian and everything we somehow end up arguing about along the way.