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Several notable pandals in Mumbai have welcomed Ganpati Bappa to the city to celebrate Ganesh Utsav 2024 and raise the festival spirit. On the occasion, Swarna Srikanth took the darshan of Bappa at the richest Ganesh pandal in the city, Gaud Saraswat Brahmin (GSB) Ganpati, and spoke to the seva mandal’s treasurer and former chairman Vijay Kamath, asking him about their enchanting Ganesh idol, darshan timings, and more. Excerpts:
Can you tell us more about the majestic idol, which happens to be eco-friendly this year?
Yes, this time, our Ganpati Bappa is eco-friendly in the sense it is made up of pure clay, which we also call shaaduchi maati.
GSB Ganpati, King Circle, Mumbai | Vijay Goel
Ideally, everyone should be going for eco-friendly ways to celebrate the festival as it is good for the environment. But then we see there are many Ganpati mandals who use Plaster of Paris, which is not right. Embracing the eco-friendly theme is the need of the hour. We have done it at our pandal and we believe this serves as an inspiration to many.
Who is the sculptor behind GSB’s Ganpati idol?
This Ganpati Bappa is sculpted by our murtikar Avinash Patkar and he started hardly one month ago. He has carved out the idol out of pure clay and grass along with his daughter Gautami. So, before we start creating the idol, prayers are offered at the Walkeshwar temple where there is a jeeva samadhi of our Swami ji.
Yours is the richest pandal in Mumbai...
Our Bappa wears a jewellery of 66 kgs of gold and around 330 kgs of silver. The crown is the most costliest and it is made up of diamonds and other precious stones. Most ornaments are crafted by a South Indian jeweller from Mangalore, Karnataka. Every year some set of jewellery gets added as devotees donate it after their mannat is fulfilled by Bappa, as a gratitude to Him. A big thanks to all the people who are donating generously.
Donations we receive dominantly come in these five days. Whatever donations are there, we do charity work through it.
How many devotees are you expecting this year? What are the crowd management arrangements at place?
During the five days of Ganpati here, we are expecting a huge rush of devotees wanting to seek the darshan and blessings of Bappa. We are estimating about one lakh people visiting the pandal every day as the darshan is open 24x7.
Picture of devotees visiting GSB pandal | Youth of GSB/iNSTAGRAM
Talking about crowd management as you have rightly asked, we have the support of Mumbai police and the support of around 3000 volunteers. This comes along with private security service in place.
Police also know how efficiently we manage the crowd here and maintain discipline. We never had any problems. So, the police commissioner often tells other mandals that they should learn something from GSB mandal and that is a proud moment for us when we are referred to as an inspiration.
Details about darshan timings, available sevas, and prasad.
The mukh darshan where people take the skywalk is open round the clock. However, the main darshan line runs between 6.30 am to 11 pm. On the last day, the darshan timing would be reduced to early evening due to visarjan later. Every devotee who comes here for Bappa’s darshan is provided with prasad - poha, fruits, coconut and appam.
There are many sevas we offer like Ekottara Sahasra Maha Ganayaga, Sahasra Bhojan Seva, Tulabhara, etc. At GSB seva mandal, Annadana Seva is done. More than 100 pandits are here during the Ganesh Utsav to perform these sevas.
