A six-pack on Ganesh is absolutely cool
Ganesh Chaturthi when I noticed not so much our favourite pachyder-man sporting a washboard stomach instead of his standard potbelly, but the loud negative response from many quarters to this anatomical metamorphosis.
Outraged by this well-toned Ganesh, many went about complaining how such a depiction of the Great Roly-Polyglot was emblematic of the aggression and belligerence that New India/New Hindu India extols. As if having a hot bod a la Brad Pitt in Fight Club is synonymous with wanting to pick a fight.
Some, including card-carrying, curd-eating atheists, even quoted the Mudgala Purana — where the deity is described in his Lambodara (Potbellied) and Mahodara (Great Bellied) forms — to underline the travesty. For them, this was a gross misrepresentation that smacked of reverse body-shaming.
I'm kinda open to wide interpretations, even when it goes charging against the narrative grain. For me, AK Ramanujan's seminal 1987 essay, 'Three Hundred Ramayanas' — demonstrating how the story of Rama has undergone numerous variations while being transmitted across languages, societies, regions, historical periods and religions, coexisting in various, even conflicting narratives — cuts both ways. You can't say 'Bravo!' to Joel Coen's film production of The Tragedy of Macbeth starring Denzel Washington in the title role — Shakespeare may not have quite seen a Black man play his 11th c. Scotsman — and then have issues with a Ganesh for being superfit.
Ganesh having a fine set of abs is as valid as Benedict Cumberbatch's
