Ganesh Festival 2021

This year, the Ganesh Festival was celebrated on a very low-key note due to the coronvirus pandemic restrictions across the country. Sarvajanik mandals were allowed to bring Ganesh idols upto 4 feet only. According to guidelines publishing by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) only 10 people were allowed to bring their Ganpati idol to the mandals.

People were banned from visiting the mandals and urged to take online darshan as arranged by various mandals. This was done to reduce the spread of corona virus and flatten the rising curve. According to guidelines issued by the state government, the BMC had implemented protocols for people to avoid crowded places.

Due to pandemic restrictions, people were already frustrated as they were not able go out with family to visit tourist places including religious places. Although, restrictions imposed by BMC were for people’s safety, they were not fully accepted. People were seen visiting mandals with family for Lord Ganesha’s darshan. But there was very less crowd for darshan.

We were in dilemma too, whether to go out or not? Will mandals allow darshan to be taken? Will there be social distancing? lot of questions were in mind. But finally, we decided to just give a try by following the social distancing protocols. So just one day before the visarjan day, we decided to go for a quick darshan of Ganpati Bappa in some areas of Kalyan West.

We visited very few mandals in areas such as Shivaji Chowk, Joshi Baug, Ram Baug, Subhedhar Wada and Bazar Peth. Across various mandals, we observed the grand celebration elements were missing. There was no music or festive functions in mandals. Only few people were there to looks after bappa and perform the rituals. We were happy to take darshan of Bappa.

On the visarjan day, we visited the Ganesh Ghat in Kalyan where bappas are immersed in Ulhas river. There too pandemic restrictions were imposed and only five family members were allowed with Bappa. People were chanting beautiful aartis and bidding farewell to Bappa with a heavy heart. We stood there for almost 45 mins and took darshan of few more bappas. After sometime, we too parted with Bappa by chanting Ganpati Bappa Morya… pudhchhya varshi lavkar ya…🙏

Here are some photos captured by me during the Ganesh Festival.