Mumbai: The third day of the Ganpati festival witnessed among the lowest footfalls, with the downpour and the waterlogging holding the devotees back.
Even the enthusiasm of pandal-hoppers was dampened; in fact, some mandals were even shut on Wednesday afternoon. An inhibiting factor was the warning issued by the weather department, asking people not to venture outdoors.
One of the richest Sarvajanik Ganesh idols, the Goud Saraswat Brahmin Seva Mandal in Kings Circle, which witnesses thousands of devotees flocking on a daily basis, saw no crowds on Wednesday afternoon.
The precious gold and stone-studded Ganpati idol, which usually draws thousands of admirers, saw just a handful of devotees. Subhash Pai, in charge of Public Relations for GSB Mandal, told the Free Press Journal, “The Ganpati is placed inside the Ram Mandir veranda and during Ganeshotsav lakhs of devotees visit the site to worship the lord.
Usually there is a serpentine queue but this time due to heavy rain we did not get crowds.” Besides, the mandal also prepares food for thousands of visitors for 11 days.
This year, since less number of devotees have visited the pandal, prasad was not prepared in the afternoon but in the evening. According to the weather forecast and the BMC, in 30 hours of incessant rainfall the city and its adjoining regions received the entire month's rain.
Besides, Andheri East recorded 214.55 millimetres of rainfall between 8 am and 2 pm, higher than any other part of Mumbai. Since the streets were water logged, the Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Samavaya Sa-miti, as a precautionary measure, asked representatives of mandals to switch off the power supply to prevent any untoward incident.
