Hyderabad: City Maharashtrians to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi with zeal & zest

Hyderabad: Going back to the roots, the Maharashtrian association finds further fervour to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi with much gaiety and fanfare after two years. The Maharashtrian community are back with full josh to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi this year, as last year the celebrations were low-key due to Covid 19 restrictions, it was a low-key affair.

There are approximately 80,000 Marathi families living in Hyderabad/Secunderabad and majorly concentrated in areas like Shalibanda, Karwan, Gowliguda, Sultan Bazar, Kachiguda, Barkatpura, Meerpet, Hitech City, Manikonda, Gachibowli, Miyapur, Kompally, ECIL and Uppal. Keeping their tradition alive, every year Ganesh idols are welcomed at the pandals and the community is also encouraging the use of eco-friendly Ganesh idols.

Anand Kulkarni, president of Maharashtra Mandal, one of the oldest Marathi associations in Ramkot, said "This year at the Maharashtra Mandal we will be celebrating the 75 years of India's independence by giving tributes to the freedom fighters. The decoration and theme of pandal will be according to it. For the past 73 years, we are celebrating the festival by following our traditional rituals. For the past two years, all our celebrations were online and as things have got back to normalcy, we have planned to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi in a grand manner. We will also be organising various cultural programmes for seven days. Ganesh immersion will be held on the seventh day at our campus at Ramkot where an artificial pond is created."

"As last two years our celebration wasa low-key affair, this year we have planned to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi with highly devotional spirit. We have been celebrating this festival from the past 80 years. On the first day we welcome Lord Ganesh with Pran Prathisthapana pooja, by offering Bappas Favorite Sweet Modak and Laddu, we welcome Bappa by playing Traditional Maharashtrian Lexims and Marathi Dhol Tasha which are the most popular instruments played during the festival," said Govind Jagirda, president of Vimal Natya Samaj, Kacheguda.

Ambarish Lahankar, Founder of Mitraangan-Maharashtrian of Hyderabad said,"Every year we celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi virtually, where we take the entries from all the residents who reside in the city and encourage them to make handmade Ganesh idols and the best idols are awarded as a token of appreciation. Our organisation has a group name Maharashtrian Dhol Tasha Pathak (Group) and in order to promote the vibrant part of the Maharashtrian culture of Maharashtra, we perform at various reputed platforms to render our musical service to Bappa(Lord Ganesh)."