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Simple and devotional: Ganesh festival kicks off in Pune
Fervour was quietly evident with the city doing its best to ensure Covid norms in place for Ganesh festival
PUNE For the second consecutive year, Punekars on Friday welcomed their favourite diety, Lord Ganesha, in as simple a manner as the Covid norms applied by the state government allowed
Pune’s five “Manache Ganpati” mandals, along with other prominent mandals like the Shrimant Dagdusheth Ganpati and the Mandai Ganpati Mandal held poojas at their respective mandaps on Friday, celebrated as Ganesh Chathurthi.
A public appeal by the mandals to the general public to- avoid physical darshans was maintained across the city, with all the pooja’s being telecast ‘live’ online.
This year the celebratory menagerie of dhol-tasha (drum) troupes, musicians, traditional games and mega sound systems, were all missing, in keeping with the call for a simple celebration issued by the state government in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Shrikant Shete, president, of the Kasba Ganpati mandal said, “We all area aware about the Covid situation in our state and accordingly, the state government has issued guidelines about celebrating the festival. We have kept it simple this year. On all 10 days no volunteers or public will be in the main mandap area housing Bappa. Only our Guruji will perform a daily aarti and rituals.”
The Kasba Ganpati is the first of the city’s “heritage five” mandals and was moved on Friday morning with a limited number of participants from Lal Mahal to the main mandap near Shaniwarwada.
Pune MP Girish Bapat was present for the pooja held at 11.38am.
The second of the Manache Ganaptis followed. Pooja for the Shree Tambadi Jogeshwari Ganpati was done by Moreshwar Ghaisasa Guruji, while for the third of thee five- the Shree Guruji Talim Ganpati mandal – the pooja was performed done by Puneet Balan, festival head of the Bhau Rangari Ganpati Mandal.
The Tulshibaug Ganpati mandal pooja took place at 12.30 pm at the hands of businessman Yuvraj Dhamale and the Kesariwada Ganpati mandal pooja was performed by Rohit Tilak, trustee, Kesari Trust.
Other prominent Ganpati mandals include the Shrimant Dagadusheth mandal, where the pooja was done by president Ashok Godse and the Akhil Mandai Sharda Ganpati mandal pooja that was done by Dr Avinash Bhondwe, former president, the Indian Medical Association.
Mahesh Suryavanshi, treasurer of the Dagdusheth Ganpati mandal said, “This is the second year we have cancelled all the celebrations and are going to make simple. There are no decorations or replicas of temples avoid crowds during the festival. We have appealed to devotees to take darshan online through our social media platforms.”
