With Ganeshotsav taking off in the city, mandals have come up with innovative ideas to create awareness among devotees
Mumbai : The 10-day-long festival which the entire city awaits every year has commenced from today. With smiles on their faces and feet tapping on Nasikh dhol, Mumbaikars have welcomed their favourite Lord Ganesha with great enthusiasm in their respective homes and pandals. The festival marks the birthday of Lord Ganesha also named as ‘Vinayak Chaturthi.’
With the advent of technology, citizens have now become friendly with social media and innovative this Ganeshotsav. There are pandals that have come up with attractive themes, designed apps for live updates of Bappa, distribute goodies to Mumbaikars and many other ideas.
The five Mandals which one should not miss this Ganeshotsav are:
GSB Sewa Mandal in King’s Circle is known to be the richest mandal in the entire city. It is celebrating its 62nd year and has got an insurance of Rs 300 crore this year. The idol is kept for five days with more than two lakh devotees from all over the world coming down to seek blessings. The unique identity of this Mandal is that devotees especially come to offer Puja (havan) to the elephant-headed god.
R G Bhatt, trustee of the mandal said, “The mandal has an overall area of 80,000 sq feet which is the biggest in the world. The idol is adorned with 70 kg of gold and 327 kg of silver. Apart from this we have purchased an insurance cover of Rs 300 crore.”
Bhatt further added, “The mandal celebrates the five-day festival with discipline and in a traditional way which commences with Ganatalom, followed by narration of stories on Ganesha, Mudaganapati (serving 108 dishes to lord), appa naivedya (prasad appam), modak naivedya (modaks) and cultural programmes at night which also include devotees chanting shlokas.”
There are 48 CCTVs with high density put up which will be connected to the local police stations and around 500 security guards and volunteers who will be on security round the clock.
“Every year the footfall of the devotees goes up by 10-15%,” concluded Bhatt.
Mumbai : Lalbaug cha Raja First look and Media Shoot at Lalbaugh .Photo by BL SONI |
Lalbaugcha Raja is Mumbai’s most famous Ganpati where devotees from across the country come in large numbers to seek blessings. The deity is kept for darshan in the famous Masala Lane of Lalbaug market since the last 83 years. The Raja is known for hearing the prayers of its devotees for which they stand in long queues for hours – ‘Navsachi Raang’(Mannat darshan queue) which starts from Byculla and devotees get Bappa’s darshan by touching his feet.
Lalbaugcha Raja Secretary Sudhir Salvi said, “The Navsachi Raang queue started from Sunday morning at 6am and there have been arrangements made for devotees – first aid, water, chairs, food and mobile toilets and other necessary arrangements to avoid any untoward incident.”
The Lalbaugcha Raja is seated on an owl this year which is considered to be Goddess Laxmi’s ‘vahana’ which will take away the breath of many with its attractive eyes. “The security has been tightened and we have put up about 120 CCTVs and deployed over 300 security guards for security reasons for all the 11 days,” added Salvi.
For the ones who will not be able to make it for Bappa’s darshan, can now download a Lalbaug360 app from their IOS and Android phones to seek live darshan and watch live ‘aarti’ of the almighty.
MUMBAI; BADRINATH MANDIR REPLICA ATTRACTION OF GANESH GALLI GANPATI MANDAL THIS YEAR. PHOTO BY BL SONI |
The Ganesh Galli mandal in Lalbaug, known as ‘Mumbaicha Raja’ is one of the oldest and most famous Ganesh idols in the city. In its 89th year, Lord Ganesha will be seen seated in a replica of the ancient Badrinath Temple. The idol is 22 feet tall wearing a huge and long 12 feet long necklace which costs lakhs of rupees.
Mandal President Kiran Tawde said “The theme Badrinath has been decided because many devotees cannot reach there to seek blessings of Lord Shiva due to climatic conditions, and health issues. So the mandal decided to design a replica of the temple for devotees at their doorstep.”
Tawde added, “There are more than 2,000 security guards and volunteers deployed for security reasons and 54 private security guards. 18 of each have been put on special three shifts (morning, afternoon and evening). And around 50 CCTVs have been put up which will be connected to local police stations as well.”
The Sahyadri Ganpati Mandal also known as ‘Chhota Rajancha Ganpati’ in Tilak Nagar in its 39th year has replica similar to the Panda Village showed in the popular ‘Kung Fu Panda’ film series to attract children. The mandal has been named ‘Sahyadri Panda Village’ which will be distributing free panda goodies to children.
Rahul Walunj, president of the Mandal said, “The children nowadays are used to playing on tablets and social networking sites and the importance of playing on grounds is dying. There is no theme park in the city so the idea was to create an adventurous theme park for children. We will be giving children panda goodies as a token of love,” he adds.
“The Panda village will give the children relief from studies for 10 days and we will also have two mascots who will take selfies with the children and entertain them,” added Walunj.
The pandal was set up within two months with bamboos and attractive colours. More than 300 security personnel and volunteers have been deployed. 20 CCTVs have been installed and the Bappa will be wearing 15 kgs of gold.
The Khetwadicha Ganraj (Khetwadi Lane 12) is one of the most royal looking Ganpati idols in the city. In its 58th year, the Bappa is sitting in a royal fusion palace inspired by designs from Rome and Rajasthan mahals.
Ganesh Mhatre, Joint Secretary of the Pandal said, “This year we have come up with a concept of Selfie with Ganraj. Wherein, the devotees have to take a selfie with Ganraj – solo or in a group and post it on www.facebook.com/Khetwadichaganraj and tag your photo using the caption #KhetwadiChaGanraj2016.”
“The contest will be for five days starting from today (September 05-10) and the devotee with the highest number of likes will be the winner and all the selfies will be featured on our Facebook page,” added Mhatre.
The entire set up took more than three months to get ready. There are 30 CCTV cameras put up and more than 200 security guards deployed.
