Her face lights up once she sets foot in one of the biggest Ganpati idol workshops in Mumbai. Sharvari, a Maharashtrian, has always had a soft corner for Bappa and Ganeshotsav, which is just round the corner.
“Ganpati period is non negotiable when it comes to taking a break from everything else. I can work every day in the year, but for this festival I have to go back to my village Moregaon. I would ideally like to be there for all the days, but sometimes I have work and can’t remove those dates. I definitely go for the main days which are Chaturthi,” says the 26-year-old, who started her film career with Bunty Aur Babli 2, and is currently working on her next with John Abraham.
You will be as fascinated to read about the celebrations in her village, as we were when she told us, “The year begins and ends for me during the Ganpati time. I have an ancestral house in my village, which is almost a 100 years old old, and we have maintained it like that, it’s called ‘wada’ in Marathi. It’s a completely different world. Every year, I come back to Mumbai with more positive and reinforced energies.”
Sharvari also adds that there has been a Bappa idol in her family-- since the Panipat war! “We do pooja of that Ganpati. We also make an idol out of cow dung, stones and sindoor, that’s symbolic. Then after the celebrations, we put it back into the river so the things it is made out of go back to nature,” she says.
{{/usCountry}}Sharvari also adds that there has been a Bappa idol in her family-- since the Panipat war! “We do pooja of that Ganpati. We also make an idol out of cow dung, stones and sindoor, that’s symbolic. Then after the celebrations, we put it back into the river so the things it is made out of go back to nature,” she says.
{{/usCountry}}No one else in her village brings Bappa to their house in the form of an idol- they all come to Wagh’s ancestral house for prasad every day and do the pooja. “There is a very big temple, there is no Ganpati at any individual’s house. We have it because it’s been there for hundreds of years, so every year the entire village comes to our house for all kinds of pooja and lunch every day,” explains Wagh, who leaves for Moregaon today incidentally to kickstart the celebrations in her village.