How loud should a prayer be?

The elephant god was not far away I was in one of the winding lanes near Currey Road station trying to find a place to eat Someone had told me that Ladu Samrat was famous But first I had to deal with Ganpati Bappa It was a small group headed for visarjan mdash the immersion of the Ganpati idol they were carrying mdash but they were accompanied by a troupe of thundermakers The term coined by me for this column describes young energetic fellows who play the frenzied tattoo on their dhols that is a signature sound of Ganesh Chaturthi in MumbaiI tensed as I saw them I knew they would start any moment now I quietly slipped out my phone and launched the app I had downloaded the previous day called Decibel X I was armed and readyA traditional troupe would have used a dhol with animal hide stretched over the drumhead or pudi The larger leftside pudi produces the deeper bass sound while the other side delivers the treble Together they deliver an immersive and earthy rolling thunder The modern dhol like this troupe was carrying has tight synthetic film usually Mylar or PVC stretched over the pudi the right side produces a bright sharp piercing soundLetrsquos talk about Bombai Click the QR code above to join my WhatsApp group to share your Bombai stories for my bookmdashand perhaps answer some of my Bombai questionsIt started with a frantic roll The thundermakers were frenetic pounding the dhol as though they were desperately short of time and had lots of drumming to get through My ears were ringing my heart was poundingI whipped out my decibel app and pointed it directly at the thundermakers How loud were they112 dBHerersquos a simple question no one has asked Why is Ganesh Chaturthi so loudSurely not for humans whose ears were not designed for such babel We can listen to sounds below 70 dB all day and sounds up to 85 dB mdash like heavy traffic or a noisy restaurant mdash for up to eight hours A normal conversation is about 60 dB and air conditioners hum at about 45 dBWhat is dangerousExposure to 95 dB for over an hour100 dB for more than 15 minutes110 dB can start harming your hearing in under two minutesAt 120 dB you are at the pain threshold Immediate harm is possibleThe drums of Ganpati thunder at 104113 decibels even without loudspeakers all day long touching 120 dB if amplified the acoustic equivalent of standing next to a chainsawFirecrackers almost always cross the 100 dB mark and some blow past 125 dB louder than a jet taking off at close rangeCars and autorickshaws honk at 107115 dB Concrete drills grind at 95110 dB and jackhammers spike higher Mumbaikars in Santacruz and Vile Parle live in the flight path of the worldrsquos busiest singlerunway airport and a plane screaming past can go past your pain thresholdThe suburban train lifeline and tormentor thunders past homes at 90110 dB regularly drowning conversationWedding bands blare at loving newlyweds punishing everyonersquos ears with discordant music in the 110120 dB zoneSo once more why must Ganesh Chaturthi be so noisy Could it be that god is so disappointed with humans that you now have to make a dreadful racket to get his attention Does religion tell us to pray loudlyEvery faith has its chants hymns and mantras often sung loudly but their goal is not so much volume as creating an exalted atmosphere of ecstasy and surrender The Bhagavad Gita stresses bhava mdash the feeling and intention behind prayer mdash over performanceldquoRaise your words not your voice It is rain that grows flowers not thunderrdquo said Rumi putting devotion over decibelsBut who would call Mumbairsquos Ganesh festival a gathering of spiritually firedup people It is a time of surging revellers unmanageable disruption and symbolic ritual Few remember that although Ganesh Chaturthi is centuries old todayrsquos mayhem has its origins in 1893 when the British rulers fearing sedition had banned gatherings of any kind However freedom fighter and nationalist Bal Gangadhar Tilak cannily realised that they would not dare stop a religious procession He repositioned Ganesh Chaturthi as a week for unifying communities bringing people together while covertly discussing colonialism and the need for independenceThe cacophonous obstructive festival we see today is a distortion of an inspired time of reverence togetherness and patriotismA Mumbaikar might ask Whatrsquos a little noise for a week No onersquos gone deaf from a festival surely and we put up with worse all year Essa a 67yearold chartered accountant in Girgaum might tell you how a firecracker dramatically changed his life He was pacing his living room around 130 am on November 2 last year Diwali had ended the previous day and firecrackers were anyway illegal after 10 pm But a firecracker bomb went off nearby deafening Essa and his Persian cat with a shattering 125 dB sonic blastThe cat panicked Essa tripped over it and fell instantly fracturing the tibia and fibula bones of his left leg It took months but today he is healed He will never drive a car again and he will walk with a limp the rest of his lifeThatrsquos what 125 dB can do You can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper