12/09/2026
One day, Ganesha met a cat. 🐈
He found it in the garden and began to play.
He pulled its tail.
He pushed it around.
He tossed it away.
To Ganesha, it was just a game.
Until he came home.
There, he found his mother, Parvati, sitting on the floor, bruised, dishevelled and crying.
“Ma, what happened?”
She looked at him and said,
“You did.”
Ganesha was confused.
“I’m crying because today, I became the cat.”
That day, Ganesha understood something he would never forget:
The way we treat another living being matters.
From then on, he became kinder to the creatures around him, learning to see the world not as something separate from himself, but as a world he was part of.
And perhaps that is one of the most beautiful lessons hidden inside the stories we tell during Ganesh Chaturthi.
What if we looked at our festival through the eyes of the world around us?
Through the eyes of a plant. 🍃
A tree. 🌳
The soil. 🪨
An animal. 🐾
A river. 🌊
What would they tell us about the way we celebrate?
This is what we’ll explore at GANESHA & THE CITY THINK TANK, a hands-on workshop by Local Gyan, in partnership with the Indian Women Scientists Association.
Children will investigate the 21 Patri, soil, plants, idol-making materials and the changing story of Ganesh Chaturthi, using science, ecology, history and culture to ask a very important question:
Can we celebrate Ganesha in a way that is kinder to the world he lives in?
📅 16 & 17 September | Wednesday & Thursday
⏰ 10:30 AM – 1:00 PM
👧🧒 Open for all ages
📍 Indian Women Scientists Association (IWSA)
🎟️ Limited seats
🔗 Register: https://www.localgyan.in/workshops/wfid-1788260521-amq09jmd
📞 9082147716
One familiar story. A hundred new questions. And a whole city to investigate.
