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Devotion, eco-friendly decor on display as Ganesh festival begins
In Pune, devotees joyfully welcomed Ganpati Bappa, favoring eco-friendly clay idols this year. Festivities included vibrant processions and traditional decorations.
Pune: Drowned in devotion, the faithful welcomed their beloved Ganpati Bappa with enthusiasm and sounds of drums. The 11-day festival this year began with fanfare and gaiety as residents installed the idols of elephant god at homes, housing societies and mandals across the city carried out grand processions of the deity drawing in huge crowds on Saturday.
On display was fervour and the urge for eco-friendly measures as several citizens preferred installing clay idols, rather than that of plaster of Paris in large number. Idol makers said, this year, more citizens are going for clay idols as compared to last year.
The idol of Lord Ganesh, the god of prosperity and wisdom and a slayer of obstacles (“vighna-harta”), was installed at several housing societies, decorated with eco-friendly material.
“This is our fifth year that we have brought home clay idol and have also stopped using thermocol for decorations,” said Vishakha Deshpande, resident of Sinhagad Road.
Bhagwan Kalokhe, a young idol maker, said, “People of late specifically ask only clay idols to be installed at home. All the 700 idols we have this year are made of clay.”
Even as festive cheer was palpable in Maharashtra and elsewhere in the country, people were busy decorating homes with flowers and rangolis to welcome idols of lord Ganesh. Citizens dressed in traditional cloths brought Bappa home in the morning and installed the idols amid hymns, prayers and cants of “Ganpati Bappa Morya”. Some will install idols on Monday.
Most streets in Pune were dotted with lines of Ganesh idols in creative “makhars” (decorative material).
Some citizens will immerse the idols on second day while many others worship the idols either for five days or 10 days before immersing it in artificial ponds erected by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
Earlier in the day, a procession of all five manache (revered) Ganpati — Kasba, Tambdi Jogeshwari, Guruji Talim, Tulshibaug and Kesari Wada — was taken out with fanfare in the city accompanied by dhol-tasha beats.
Devotees thronged vegetable and flower markets, sweet shops and roadside stalls to buy flowers, puja material, sweets and decorative items.
In Pune, the mandals this year have made elaborate decorations based on myriad themes ranging from the Jatoli Shiv Mandir them to Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir. Families, including children as well as senior citizens, stepped out of their homes early morning to bring their beloved Bappa home amid beating of drums.
The main procession of Shrimant Dagdusheth Ganpati Mandal was taken out from the main temple on Saturday morning. While in the jubilant atmosphere, the arrival of Sharda Gajanana Ganpati was more traditional as the Omkar Ratha decorated with flowers of the Mandai Ganpati Mandal.
