Khetwadi residents welcomed their 32-ft Ganesh idol which looked like a life-size effigy of Lord Hanuman, in their bylane late on Thursday night. The attractive idol is almost the size of a three storey building. Small bylanes were not an obstruction for the idol to be transported, but the long cable wires from one building to another posed transport threat for the procession.
Since few years, big mandals are seen choosing different themes related to Ganapati idol in order to celebrate the festival. This year, while few mandals opted for Ganesh idol replicating other lords like lord Vitthal, lord Hanuman, few other mandals opted for eco-friendly idols for the first time.
While last year, the 8th Lane Mandal at Khetwadi had installed a replica of Baji Rao from the movie Bajirao Mastani, this year they preferred to Lord Hanuman theme. Nilesh Shridhankar, member of Khetwadi 8th Lane Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal, said, "This is 57th year of our mandal and in order to mark the celebration, we have planned to install tallest idol."
Similarly, in Kalachowki, a replica of Vitthal-Rukmini Mandir located in Pandharpur has been planned. Aman Dalvi, secretary of Kalachowki Utsav Mandal, said, "This is our first year that we have planned to set up a replica of a temple. Besides the replica of the temple for the pandal, they have also made a replica of lord Vitthal for the Gapati idol this year."
Since the few years, bringing Ganpati idols at pandals before Ganeshostav have been a trend among many big mandals in the city. The large Ganpati idols are brought from the workshop at the pandal few days before the 11-day festival begins.
ECO-FRIENDLY MESSAGE
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Another mandal in Lalbaug - Tejukaya Mandal, this year made a big idol of paper mache. According to the mandal members, they want to spread eco-friendly message.
Ashish Rampure, vice-president of the mandal, said, "The government has been promoting eco-friendly ways to celebrate the festival. This year, we thought of taking a step forward and use paper mache rather than PoP. After a year long planning, we are finally able to implement the eco-friendly method."
He added, "Usually small Ganesh idols are seen to be made of mud or paper mache, but not many big idols are seen to be made in an eco-friendly way."
Since the Ganeshostav festival begins from September 2, Monday. Many big mandals in the city have started bringing their idols at its pandal and the occasion is popularly termed as 'Ganesh Aagaman' |
