Ganesha and the Laughing Moon
The moon made fun of Ganesha. Big mistake.
After a huge feast of modaks at Kubera's palace, Ganesha is riding home on his little mouse when a snake startles them. Ganesha tumbles, his belly bursts, and the modaks roll out. The Moon up in the sky laughs at him. Ganesha gets angry and curses the Moon. That is why, even today, families look away from the sky on Ganesh Chaturthi night.
A Belly Full of Modaks
It was a warm Bhadrapada night, the kind of night when the sky over Mount Kailasa is so full of stars that you cannot count them. Ganesha had just finished a feast.
Not a small feast. A huge one.
Kubera, the god of wealth, had invited him over and put out plate after plate of his favourite sweet. Modak. Soft rice flour outside. Hot, melty jaggery and coconut inside. Ganesha ate one. Then ten. Then a hundred. Then so many that even Kubera lost count.
By the end, Ganesha's round belly was rounder than ever. He waddled, he burped, he smiled the happiest smile a god has ever smiled. Then he climbed onto his little mouse, Mooshika, and started the ride home.
What happened next is the reason your grandmother might tell you, on one special night every year, not to look up at the sky.
The Snake on the Path
The path back to Kailasa wound through tall grass. Mooshika the mouse was small. Ganesha was big. With a belly full of a hundred modaks, he was even bigger than usual.
And the road was dark.
Suddenly, in the grass, a long shape moved. A snake. Long and silver, sliding right across the path.
Mooshika squeaked and jumped sideways. His tiny feet skidded. Ganesha tilted. He tilted a little more. And then, with a soft whump, he fell off.
His belly hit the ground. It split open like an over-stuffed sack. Modaks rolled everywhere. Across the path, into the grass, under the bushes. Sticky, sweet, perfectly round modaks, everywhere.
Ganesha looked down at himself. He was not hurt. Gods do not hurt the way we hurt. But his belly was open, and his sweets were running away from him in every direction.