In the cities, Ganesh Chaturthi is mostly loud music aesthetic pandals, ten-foot bappa, a visarjan procession that mostly blocks the whole roads. I’ve experienced it all in Pune and nothing can beat that. But sometimes the loud music could be disturbing to sick people around or families trying to make their baby sleep. On the other hand, DJs working hard are earning money for their families. We definitely need preventive measures to balance it all.

In Sindhudurg, Ganesh Chaturthi is a little wholesome. And somehow, bigger as people who stay in different cities come back for the festival.
Here, the festival begins weeks or months early not with decorations, but with train tickets. Ask any Malvani working in Mumbai or Pune and they’ll tell you the same thing: Diwali can be skipped, but you come home for Ganpati. The Konkan Kanya and the ST buses fill up with people whose bags are heavier on the way back than on the way there but return back with satisfied soul and heavy hearts for having stayed away so long.
The Ganpati here is gharguti, a home Ganpati. No nuclear family setup, one big family has one ganpati. Bappa sits in the valai a room or centre where all religious activities take place. Each year the same murti-maker carves the bappa. Every generation has been to his to select bappa.


Then the house fills up with cousins, kids, and elders. Aajji, the women’s gang and almost all the elders are awake before everyone; some of them are kneading rice flour for the ukdiche modak, the steamed ones, the OG modaks.

The best part is the aarti is loud and gloriously off-key, one cousin always a beat behind on the taal. Naivedya, then lunch around 3 pm, and then that heavy afternoon nap the whole village seems to take at once.
Some families keep Bappa for a day and a half. Some five days, some ten. The glorious 10 days are like therapy measured in meals cooked, relatives fed, and small fights happily forgotten.
That’s the significance Sindhudurg holds so well and which makes every individual to return home for the festival. Ganesh Chaturthi is making memories with family and loved ones. And if you have never been here, please visit Sindhudurg specifically for Ganesh Chaturthi.


Ganpati Bappa Morya.

This blog post is part of ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla in collaboration with Ratna Prabha.

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