10-day Ganapati Mahotsav festivities start in city on notes of joy, devotion

Ludhiana: As the ten-day Ganapati Mahotsav celebrations started in the city on Saturday, residents brought home beautiful idols of Lord Ganapati and paid obeisance in elaborately decorated pandals and temples.
Markets were crowded with people buying puja and decoration material for the 10-day worship at homes and pandals.
Once popular mainly among the Maharashtrian community, the festival is now celebrated in the city with fervour.A number of committees organise festivities in the city, where markets and public spaces are tastefully decorated. Preparations for the 10-day festival have been underway for the past two months.
The festival will end on September 16 and 17 with immersion of idols. In the city, the festival is celebrated on a massive scale in major chowks, including Janakpuri, where the idol is installed in Ganpati Chowk, which is named after the festival. Other locations include Haibowal, Durgapuri, Civil Lines, BRS Nagar, Giaspura, 33 feet road, Neem wala chowk, Daresi, Focal Point, Jalandhar bypass etc.
Various committees in the city try to outdo each other in terms of the scale of celebrations and aesthetic appeal of the decorations. Honey Bedi, member of the Baba Ganpati Sewa Sangh, said that sculptors from Odisha made the idol of Lord Ganesha. He added that during the 10-day celebrations, they would pray for the well-being of humanity as a whole.
Mahesh Dutt Sharma from Shree Ganesh Mahotsav Committee, Daresi said, “Every morning and evening, till September 17, people can come and seek the blessings of Lord Ganesha and pray for their loved ones.” He said that prayer programmes will be organised and prasad distributed on all 10 days. He added that the festival was not restricted to a particular group as divine blessings were open to all.
Meanwhile, environment activists have requested the authorities and organising committees to use eco-friendly idols so that water is not polluted after the immersion ceremonies.