The action of this Officer may look silly and superstitious, but one cannot condemn it like that. The Officer hails from a cultured community and he emulating his ancestors would not have done this if he or his ancestors had not discovered something sublime in this grotesque figure.

In an article published in Femina - March 25 - April 7, 1977 Kamini Raushal makes a reference to her conversation with Petrushka, a Russian girl in Moscow, who reveals that her husband Ivan, a Physics Engineer is a great Yoga fan, practising yoga every morning. She also reveals that Ganesha is his favourite God and that to please her husband she has to give up smoking and drinking. As in the case of the Hindu Naval Officer, the young Moscow Engineer also appears to have discovered the sublime in the image of Ganesha.

Ganesha is usually depicted either as a pictograph or as an idol with the body of a man deformed by a big belly and disproportionate limbs with the head of an elephant, having only one tusk, the other tusk appearing broken. He wears a serpent girdle either across his shoulder or around his belly. In some images he is seen with two heads. There are also three headed Ganeshas, four headed Ganeshas and five headed Ganeshas. In certain images he is seen with a third eye in his forehead.

Although he is reputed to be a celibate he is seen in certain depictions with his two platonic consorts Buddhi (Wisdom) and Siddhi (the mystic power) and amazingly the entire weight of this bizarre figure with the two consorts is mounted on a tiny mouse.

In the mythologies of other countries we have similar figures with human bodies and animal heads. Asshur, the Chief Assyrian God, had a bird's head. Horus, the Chief Egyptian God, had a falcon's head. Another Egyptian God, Anubis, had a jackal's head. The Egyptian Goddess Sekhmet had a lion's head. Minos, the Greek God had a bull's head and Hera the Greek Goddess had a cow's head.

In Indian mythology, besides Ganesha, we have Deities like Varahamurthy with the head of a boar, Narasimhamurthy with the head of a lion and Hayagrivamurthy with the head of a horse. But in no mythology could anyone find a Deity like Ganesha as an object of daily worship as by the orthodox Hindus.