Ganapati Bappa Morya!! ...

My favorite time of the year is here ... :)

It's Ganesh Utsav and most housing complexes and several Ganesh mandals all over the city are decked up to welcome Ganapati Bappa. This 10 day festival starts with installing the Ganesh idol and daily poojas and aartis. Most mandals organize different social events, blood donation camps,charity events as well as entertainment events like talent shows and music shows. At our house too we install the Ganesh idol and invite friends and relatives over for aarti and prasad.

This year we went for a completely Eco-friendly Ganesha. We got the idol from a local vendor and it was made out of 'shadu maati'. They had used natural dyes and colors made out of turmeric and kumkum for painting the idol. It really looked very beautiful and serene.

For the decorations, it was a simple lotus made out of pink card sheet paper. No thermocol or plastic decorations this year .. :). With a blue cloth for background and green colored handmade paper cut to form the lotus leaves, it formed a pretty picture ... :)

The meals and prasad are equally elaborate. On Ganesh sthapana we usually have the famous 'ukadiche modak' and for remaining days it's either the khowa modak or the fried modaks.

The festival ends with the visarjan procession. This year it went on for 28 hours. Now waiting for the next big festival to begin ... and the wait is not too long ... :)



Location: Pune, Maharashtra, India

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