Pune is gearing up for "Bappa at home" as public festivities surrounding Ganesh Chaturti comes to a halt to prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in the city, Hindustan Times reported.
The first day of the 10-day long festival is usually celebrated as Ganesh Chaturti and involves the setting up of mandaps, setting up of extensive decor for the public to see. However, all of this has now been drawn to a halt and is unlikely to happen, the report said.
According to the report, in order to make up for the festivities, idol makers have devised a strategy to ensure that every home has a 'Vinagratha', this festival season.
Speaking to Hindustan Times about the plan, Abhijeet Suresh Abnwae, owner of Abhijeet Arts, a firm that has been in the idol-making business for 30 years, said, “In a bid to reach the maximum number of people and provide them Ganpati idols at their doorsteps, we started a concept called ‘Bappa Aplya Dari’ (Ganpati at your doorstep). People should not come out of their society or area to the market to purchase the idols this year. So we have three vans in which we have displayed the different types of Ganpati idols." Each van will have up to 70-80 varieties and have 215 idols on display. These idols will also be made available in different materials ranging from plaster of paris (POP) to eco-friendly idols, the report said.
Another veteran idol-maker, 62-year-old Ganesh Lanjekar, who owns Lanjekar Ganpati Idols in Kasba path, said their overall production of idols had nearly halved from last year, and they had begun sending photos of idols to regular customers using WhatsApp.
With the number of progressive positive cases in Pune having crossed 30,000 cases and currently growing at the rate of 1,500-plus cases per day, this has caused a halt in festivities of Ganesh Chaturti, the report said.
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