Indian idol

This Ganesh festival, community members tell us what it means to welcome the elephant-headed god in their homes and hearts

Suman Savur

My preparation for the Ganesh festival begins in July when I make the clay idol. It needs a few weeks to dry, then gets painted and nally is decked with all the additional decorations. Each year we celebrate the Ganesha festival with a small group of friends - each of who brings a traditional dish.

We begin the pujas with the women gathering for prayers to Suvarna Gowri and after aarti, the men join us for the Ganapati mahapuja. This culminates with singing of bhajans, aartis including a modak aarti, and seeing the re ection of the deity in kumkum water. Then comes the feast with at least 20 very traditional dishes. At the end we have a group photo that serves as a memento and also for the ladies, helps to answer the question - what sari did I wear last year?

Rutuja Salunkhe

Ganesh Chaturthi is held in our household every year on the month of Bhadra to celebrate the birth of Lord Ganesh. We commence this 10-day festival with a daily pooja and aarti. Over the course of ten days, friends and family drop in for the festivities, sharing worship, food and love through out. We offer our Ganesh many different types of fruits and owers, and his favourite food, modak In addition to this, each day we offer different preparations such as suji halwa, kheer and more.

Vrushali Sanap

Lord Ganesh, or Ganpati Bappa as he is colloquially known, is a god of wisdom, success and good luck. His other name Vighneshvara is Sanskrit for ‘remover of obstacles or dif culties’. The celebration of Lord Ganesh (Ganesh Chaturthi) for 12 days at our home with friends and families brought us much happiness, and took us back to our childhood days. Our celebration was a small effort to offer our prayers to Lord Ganesh to seek his blessings. As medical professionals my husband Milind and I believe treating and caring for our patients is our worship towards Lord Ganesh. Work our my worship. May Lord Ganesh bless us all with wisdom, success and good luck.