BHOPAL: Late permission received from the district administration for public celebration of Ganesh festival coupled with wet weather over the past few days has led to installation of Lord Ganesh at far fewer places than usual.
On Ganesh Chaturthi, Lord Ganesh is installed in the city at over 600 places, but this year the public celebration could be seen at far less places. The festive atmosphere was more palpable in households and housing societies, where small idols of Lord Ganesh have been installed in thousands. At several places, installation of Lord Ganesh’s idol had not taken place till late evening as the organisers were busy putting everything in order before the Lord could be seated in the pandal.
“We received the permission late and then it has been raining for the past few days, so we could not prepare everything in advance. We are still putting things in order before the idol of Lord Ganesh is installed with an elaborate puja and accompanying rituals’’, said secretary of the New Market Vyapari Mahasangh Ajay Devanani.
He said that by 8 pm, the idol would be installed and the pandal would be ready for devotees to come and have darshan of the Lord Ganesh. He, however, said that on the first day, people install Lord Ganesh at home and do their own puja and rituals rather than going for darshan of Lord Ganesh installed at public places like New Market. “It’s the second day, when people start coming to have darshan”, he said.
Devanani said that they would request people to leave after having darshan of the Lord and receiving prasad so that there is no crowding in the pandal and not more than 10-12 people are there in the pandal at a time.
Lord Ganesh at Sarafa Chowk, known as “Bhopal Ke Raja” was, however, installed with puja and accompanying rituals spanning over three hours during the day itself. Here, Lord Ganesh is seated in the pandal with his entire family — Lord Ganesh, Riddhi, Siddhi, Subh & Labh.
Dinesh Goyal of the organising committee said that it’s more of offering prayer to the Lord with “Vidhi Vidhan” (rites and rituals) here at Sarafa Chowk. “Idols were installed during the day with an elaborate puja spanning over three hours and in the evening, there will be “shringar” of the Lord and other members of his family with flowers.
On crowd management, he said, “There is always a crowd at Sarafa Chowk but we have decided not to distribute prasad to devotees following puja, so that there is no crowding in the pandal. As far as puja is concerned, it is done by the pujari in the presence of two organising committee members so there is no question of crowd assembling for puja”, he said.
It seemed clear from what the organisers are saying that there will be no extravaganza during the festival and the festivities will mainly be limited to “darshan, puja and Shringar” of the Lord.
