Next to the pandal, another stage got structured for entertainment, cheap dancing, singing, all the works. It all became meaningless gradually because all kinds of ill gotten money kept on flowing, thus making things more fancy and expensive. It was all worth it because we got praises and more encouragements for our efforts.Ī decade later everything just shifted to money making business and the mandal started receiving cheques for huge amount even though we didn't have Bank accounts in the Mandals name. In the end we all used to shell out the final day expenses from our own pockets. Every Penny was spent on the Pandal and we could almost make it till 9 days including hiring Truck for the Visarjan day. It was a tiring thing collecting from morning till evening for at least 2 weeks. I used to be a part of the Sarvajanik Ganesh mandal in the '90s, back when it was all about the festival and we as a group all used to collect donations from people in various parts who were willing to donate minimum amount, coins including. Ganesh Bhakti is the last thing these 'Bhadwas' have on their mind. The bigger the Idols and Pandals, the fanciest ones get multi crores of donations from sponsors, shop/store owners, corporates,NRIs etc etc.for whole 10 days. that need some attention seeking and pointless pomp and glory.īecause gobs of Money that lasts long for a year. Its only these society groups, mandals, clubs, etc. Imagine for a moment, you are a student staying in a rented flat, and 10-15 people just barge in, all of them talking among themselves in loud Marathi, and at the risk of sounding elitist, all of them Taporis. When we argued that we were students and couldn't give a hefty amount and could only afford Rs. When we were reluctant and said we needed some time to think about the quantum, we were literally advised not to think over it and give a suitable donation right then and there. All of them just barged in and literally demanded donation for the festival. I was staying in a small 1BHK accommodation with a friend at that time. In the backdrop of the hostile environment created for the 'outsiders' in Maharashtra, some time in 2010-11, on the pretext of collecting 'donation' for the festival, almost 10-15 people entered our rented premises. Also, the people actually at the ganesh pandals, the dancing semi naked men, are invatriably poor! Ganesh Chaturthi is a great occasion for the political masters to splash lots of money on the organisation and ancilliary activities such as drinking, organising rain showers (literally true!), big multiple loud speakers etc. So obviously, the only way they can do that is to have the biggest, noisest and crassest celebration of the festival. Everybody wants to get noticed by the Marathi Manoos' Thackreys and other Pawars. Almost all of the Mitra Mandals are influential in turning the local public opinion and at the top of all of them is a local politician who wants to propogate hindu/ marathi culture to please their overlords in Mumbai. How I see it is that there is a great political force behind the noisy, crass and unpleasant organisation of Ganesh Chaturthi festival by the 'Mitra Mandals' of every area in Pune.
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