#modaka

Yesterday, Hindus worldwide celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi, or Ganesha’s Birthday!! Ganesha is the Hindu god of auspiciousness, wisdom, prosperity, and a million other things. He is shown as having an elephant head, and a really chubby body. His four hands hold an axe (occasionally an ankush - the tool used by mahouts to control elephants), a noose, a flower or his tusk, and his favourite snack - laddoos or modak!

His birth story is like really rad, and also another legend concerning his birthday.

So his birth story goes that once the goddess Parvati had asked Shiva’s favourite devotee and vehicle, Nandi the Bull, to guard the door while she bathes and let nobody enter (pro tip: do not ask your husband’s lackey to do your work). Anyways Shiva enters in full dudebro Chad mode, and heads towards the bathroom. 

Nandi stops him and says, “My Lord, the Lady is bathing inside. I cannot allow you in.”

Shiva replies, “Well Nandi, we’ve had sex so I think we’re past the point where we can’t see each other in the shower.”

Not cool. Shiva enters the bathroom, and Parvati is shocked and angry. She tells Shiva to leave the bathroom at once, and he goes laughing, saying “Oh women”. Parvati was still seething with anger when Shiva left. Nandi should have stopped him, but he didn’t. Well if nobody here listened to her, she was gonna create her own... personal security head. So she gathered all the foam and dirt that collected as she bathed, and formed a boy out of it. She named the boy Vinayaka (he without a leader) and told him that she was his mother, instructing him to let nobody in while she rests now.

Imagine a cute, chubby fourth grader who’s made class monitor - only they are armed with a super deadly divine weapon. That’s what Vinayaka looked like. He started pacing around, and when Shiva came again he stopped him and said, “Sorry, you can’t enter.” Shiva had never seen this boy. And he was very certain that Parvati couldn’t have been pregnant, at least when he had seen her last. Shiva told him to let him enter, but the boy didn’t budge, saying it was his mother Parvati’s instruction. 

“Well I’m her husband and that makes me your father. Now let me meet your mother, you super adorbs boy” said Shiva.

“I was made only by my mother. And how can I believe you’re my father? I mean, you look skeevy.” replied the boy.

And so Shiva handled it rationally - sending his army of ganas (Shiva’s attendants) led by Nandi to crush the boy. Little did he know that the boy would end up crushing them, and also Nandi’s jaw. Livid, he called all the gods and told them that a super deadly cute possibly demonic boy was harassing him. All the gods then arrived with their own army to kill the boy.

Hearing of this, Parvati then sent forth Durga and Kali and her own army of goddesses to aid Vinayaka in his battle. Bada bing bada boom Shiva finds Vinayaka and beheads him. Parvati rushed out, and when she saw her son lying dead, she vowed revenge on everybody and everything unless her son was brought back to life. So Shiva told his ganas to go north and bring the head of the first animal they see - which turned out to be an elephant. Shiva then attached its head to Vinayaka, making him alive again. However Parvati wasn’t satisfied yet. So Shiva made him the god of obstacles and auspiciousness and a million other things and also gave him the right to be worshipped first in any ritual, and made him the chief of his ganas, thus giving him the name Ganesha.

If you think it doesn’t get any weirder or cooler, just read up how Ganesha handled the moon and his body shaming.

Ganesha was returning from his birthday feast, and he was just munching on some after party snacks while going back home on his vehicle - the rat Mooshak. Mooshak however couldn’t handle Ganesha’s weight and eventually both of them tripped, with Ganesha’s snacks sprawling everywhere. Seeing this, the moon god Chandra couldn’t help but laugh, and said “What happened? Did your balloon like belly come in your way you stupid ass human dumpling!?” and started snickering (dude’s actually a fuckboy, so you get it). Ganesha had about enough. He had fallen down, he had been insulted AND his after party snacks were ruined?! He gathered all the snacks back in their box and then tied it to his belly with a snake (smort). Then he faced the moon and in his adorbs little voice, said, “Yeah well how dare you make fun of me on my birthday! Fuck you you tiny little shit - please don’t tell mom i cursed - you know what, I’ve had about enough you! I curse you to lose your shine and charm and beauty, and I curse that if anybody even sees you on my birthday, they will be inviting my wrath!!!”

Immediately, Chandra kneeled in front of Ganesha, “Please don’t, being a hot piece of eye candy is the only thing I can do please don’t!!” 

To which Ganesha replied, “If you get me enough snacks and food, I might think about it.” (he did Chandra went back to being his fuckboy self but woke).

But he didn’t take back the seeing thing. It is considered bad luck to even glance at the moon on Ganesha Chaturthi, for it is thought to invite the wrath of gods.

Well people this has been an informative sesh, sorry for the long post.

Imagine walking into one of Tim Burton’s animated films. Add a bit of fairy tale and mix the result with the rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee. This sums up the experience of entering the hidden world of Moka. [caption id="attachment_13704" align="alignleft" width="225"] Peenida Sunthornrat & Modaka[/caption]

Moka, also known as Peenida Sunthornrat, combines her art gallery with a cozy coffee shop on one of the busiest streets in Bangkok. Due to its small size, the place is easily overlooked. A shame, as it has the best coffee in the area topped off with Moka’s unique pop surrealistic art.

The central figure in Moka’s art is a chubby little girl called Modaka. She was created with the intention to communicate with people on behalf of Moka to inspire and motivate them to discover the greatness that lives inside of them. “Modaka is a little girl who has a hidden message in every action. She is a storyteller and has her own way of telling and sharing her insights. She presents my inner self and my perspective on the world and people”, Moka says.

Modaka’s facial expressions never change, leaving her audience with no clue of what she has in mind. She tends to conceal and repress her feelings. Her eyes resemble those of the many Buddha statues found in Thailand. They symbolize peace, harmony, wisdom, and modesty. Her voluptuous body was inspired by the Venus of Willendorf, a symbol of beauty, fertility, and motherhood. Her hands and feet are insignificantly tiny, which portrays the idea of letting things go.

The essence of her work is to show faith. She believes that there is goodness hidden among all the evil. Moka aims to encourage her audience to follow that light in order to seek a way out.

“I got inspired at first by the bedtime stories from my childhood. When I was young, I was fascinated by the characters, the animals, the trees, or even the flowers I saw in those stories. Now that I have become an artist, all my fantasies have become symbols in my work. And, as much as those fairytales have influenced me, my inspiration also derives from people I meet in day-to-day life”.

Those people, she meets in her coffee shop.