panaji
Goa and Goans spent most of Wednesday gearing up to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi, one of the most revered Hindu religious festivals.
The festival commences on Thursday with most families and Ganesh mandals ready to welcome the Lord of Wisdom. Establishments across the State were busy catering to orders for the elephant-headed God made from clay on Wednesday.
The first immersion of idols in wells, ponds, lakes and rivers will commence on Friday evening. The second round of immersions (five-day Ganesha) will be carried out on Monday (September 17).
Meanwhile, government and private offices across the State saw thin attendance on Wednesday, but the market places were abuzz with people doing last-minute shopping late evening.
The Panaji market and at the Matoli fair along the banks of river Mandovi witnessed rush of people to buy decorations.
Salesmen at the temporary stalls of fireworks also did brisk business throughout Wednesday. Buses and trains operating on the inter-state routes were running full as devotees generally move to their native towns and villages to celebrate the festival.
Konkan Railway Corporation limited has also been running special trains for the last few days. While most government staff had proceeded on leave and moved to their native villages for the festival, there were hardly any visitors to these offices.
Many restaurants in the city also down their shutters during the festival as most of their staff members who generally hail from the Konkan areas of Maharashtra leave for their homes.
Meanwhile, organizers at the nearly 70-odd Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav mandals across all major cities, towns and villages were seen busy giving final touches to the arrangements and decorations.
The Ganesh festival is also a time when political leaders, especially MLAs, take advantage to interact with their constituents and shower them with festive gifts and packets of groceries used to prepare traditional sweets.
However, this time the gesture of the politicians has triggered widespread criticism on social media platforms.
