Citizens Speak: Behind the dazzling celebrations of Ganpati in Mumbai

Almost more than fifteen days ahead of the Ganpati celebrations in Mumbai, the most popular area of Lalbaugh started taking its extravagant form. Just like every year, the entrance of the lane leading up to the most celebrated Ganpati worldwide has already been restricted, while the entire area is dazzling with buyers and devotees, along with the glazing decorations during the day and lights at night.  But for the Lalbaugh residents, other than the excitement for the festivities, it is also a start of everyday hassles; even though for a few days. 

It is that time of the year for the residents where they stock up their grocery. “We have to either go to Kala Chowky, Byculla, or Parel to buy the grocery and the vegetables as everything is closed,” says a 39-year-old resident Anand Khamkar. For the entire 10-11 days when the devotees from across the country, visit the Lalbaugh Cha Raja, the residents face the problems of hygiene. “Crores of people come here. They spit here and we also fall ill,” he says adding that there is a lot of noise that they have to deal with.

The residents of Lalbaugh are given special cards so that they can show them to the police and enter the lanes to go to their homes as there is a lot of crowd of devotees who have to follow the queue to worship. However, Khamkar says that it is hardly of any use at times. “The police do not let us in sometimes even if we show the cards on the pretext that others will also follow us and the queue for the devotees will be disrupted. So, we have to wait to get to our homes,” he says adding that school students in the area are also affected as a few have to go and take trains from Parel as compared to Chinchpokli which is the closest station in the central line.

Right from the time the market located in the lane of the Lalbaugh leading to the Ganpati idol was incepted – in the early 1920s – all the shops shared the same roof. Although the shops are different, this kind of construction which continues to date is a problem for the shop owners here which intensifies during these ten days. Anand Khamkar, who is also a retail shop owner for Hindu religious items and a few electronic items in this lane has to close his shop for ten days as the shops, which are aligned on both sides of this road are restricted for any business by the authorities. “There are a lot of rats that travel through the gaps between each shop from the roof. When we close the shop for 10 days in a row, they damage the products,” Khamkar says while pointing towards a box that was damaged by a rat.

The restrictions on these shops are due to the long queue of devotees that form along this route. However, this forces the shops to close for a few days. While it doesn’t significantly impact established and older shopkeepers who own their spaces, it causes problems for traders operating on a lease, as locals note that they incur losses. “Even before the festival begins, we do not get customers because they do not come inside (the lane) owing to the decoration work going at the entrance,” he says adding that there is a dire need for the lane to be expanded so that these problems do not come the way of their businesses. 

In this same lane, a sweet shop that has existed since 2003 might have developed a good customer base but cannot serve their loyal customers during this time as they cannot reach their shop. While showing disappointment on this, Atul Korgaonkar, the shop owner and the local resident here says that he keeps the other entrance open on the other side of the shop for the customers and delivers it online. 

The captivating charm of Lalbaugh Cha Raja in Mumbai has been ever-flourishing – be it the expanding distribution of its existence through social media or the international fame that it enjoys, but it might be a half-narrated story to be told, at least for a lot of traders, retail shops, and seasonal sellers. An electronic shop owner in Lalbaugh, who has been running the business for the last twelve years mentioned that not just the business is down this year but has been decreasing for them over the years. “There are shops everywhere. Previously, people from villages would come and buy from here but now they get the stuff around their locations,” the owner says.

A few shops after this on the same lane is the Shree Ramdev Dresswala, a three-generation-old trader for Ganpati pandals and clothing materials, who also shares the story of suffering losses with each passing year. “This business is down by 30% this year and has not been how it was before else you would have not even got the way to enter the shop,” he says referring to the crowd of shoppers that would throng the streets during this festival. 

The second-generation seasonal trader, who specialises in creating the idols of ‘Gauri-Ganpati’, believes that the business has been down by almost 40% as compared to the last year. Reiterating the lesser sales over the years, Sagar says, “Because of social media, people don’t come to us.” While he also resorted to the online mode during the 10 days of the festival as police barricaded the area for customers to these shops, his business works better from the shop. “The lanes here in Lalbaugh that are filled with devotees need to be bigger and developed so that people can come to us,” he adds.

The infrastructure development in Lalbaugh becomes even more prominent as a lot of other traders and small hawkers also come to this place during Ganpati celebrations along with the ones existing for many years. Calling the scenes here a “mela”, Bippan Jaiswal, who works to fund his school education usually sells candy floss at the Juhu beach. But during the Utsav, he takes a small stall in Lalbaugh by almost paying Rs. 30,000 in advance to also sell other fast-food items and aims to make business through it. “I also have to pay another 30,000 after the festival. It is a huge loss most of the years,” he further says.

Down south from Lalbaugh, in Lohar Chawl, the area lit up during the festivals also has similar stories to tell. During the time of our visit, the streets were already full of decoration articles for pandals mostly consisting of flowers. Amidst the crowd of shoppers, however, not a lot of sellers were contented about the sales. Saddam Hussain, the flower hawker says that the business has been down since the pandemic. “See these people strolling the streets, they are empty-handed but are still not buying anything,” he says referring to the decreasing purchasing power of buyers.  

An elderly permanent trader here, whose family has been selling kitchen utensils since 1930 for the last three generations also thought of selling decoration items for the first time in this festival anticipating profits or, at least, good sales but is disappointed over the response. “There is a problem of commotion which is why the customers cannot always reach the shops as they get the stuff from the moving hawkers outside our shops. I will not continue this for the next year now as there is a huge loss,” Shabbir Lohar Chawlwala from Ahmedally Essoofally, and Sons says.

Even though Shankar Mallah makes the Ganesha idols and can easily earn at least 2-3 lakh in the two months around Ganesh Utsav does not sometimes earn profits. “Once, I could only make Rs. 6,000 and sometimes, I don’t even get it,” says the 38-year-old Mallah who does the pottery and diamond work for the idols and sells it in Apna bazaar of Andheri. For the last 20 years, while he has been working to create idols throughout the year from the money he earns during the Ganpati celebrations, he also sells fruits at other times. 

The burnt of the last day

Even the last day of the festivities, along with the sheer enthusiasm about bidding goodbye to the Ganpati, carries with it the load for many. At the southernmost tip of Mumbai’s Girgaum Chowpatty where the majority of the idols are immersed, including that of the Lalbaugh Cha Raja’s, the locals feel the burnt of it. Om Prakash Sharma who runs a Paan shop here at Girgaum, says that despite all arrangements for mobile vans, he has to face difficulties in relieving himself. “Sometimes, people also take away the stuff and we cannot keep a check because of the huge crowd around,” he says.

The stalls of food and drinks at Girgaum were displaced from their original location on the beach in 2000. Chandrapal Singh, 63, whose Vada Pav stall, opened by his father in 1936, says that the Police had shifted their stall along with other such stalls overnight without telling them. Since then, the stalls have been operating at the left-most side of the Chowpatty, which, as per Singh has also been a reason for less business for them. Irrespective, this side is reserved for the parking of the vans and bigger vehicles that bring the idols with them to immerse at the Girgaum. “Due to such a setting, not a lot of people can reach our shops,” he says adding that the police do not listen to them and that he has seen stampede here a lot of times.

Another stall owner at the beach, Bhim Singh mentioned that the beach gets untidy on the last day. While the stalls at Girgaum still have mixed opinions about the problems faced during the day of immersion, across the road from the Chowpatty are a series of stalls, shops, and luxury cafes and restaurants that remain closed on the last day. Yadav, who works in one of the oldest stalls here named Bachelor’s shares that it is because of the crowd. However, a one-day closure might not bring adversaries to the shops on this side, but such is not the case with Sudama, who runs a snack stall right outside the Charni Road station and has to keep it open on that day. He says, “There is a heavy rush during the day but we cannot do much.”

The shops in the second most crowded place on the last day, Juhu Beach, also have similar stories. Sanjay Gupta, who is the third-generation owner of the stall for ice golas, says, “We have to keep our stall closed if there is a huge crowd as the police do not allow it. We end up making a loss.” Gupta also mentioned that his business has been down over the years even if remains open on the last day of this festival. Even Chotu Chauhan, whose stall overlooks the beach, says that he suffers a big loss even if the stall is closed for a day. “In the last 5 years, there have been more restrictions as police fence the food area with ropes and people cannot come to this side,” he adds.

The photographers, who make money from the tourists and locals alike at Juhu find a spot outside the beach and cannot work in the second half. “It is a day of loss,” one of the photographers says while talking to Local Samosa while other permanent hawkers here state that the beach is full and there is less space for them. 

The green alarm!

While dirt and pollution on the beaches and ground are cleared by civic officials, causing less concern for nearby residents, the underwater environment faces greater risks, according to UNESCO Green Citizen Elsie Gabriel. She says, “PoP idols contain lime and other chemicals that are immersed in water, posing significant risks to aquatic species that consume them. Additionally, decorative items are harmful, leading to adverse effects on both marine life and humans who rely on these waters.”

Gabriel, the founder of the Young Environmentalists Programme Trust, also highlights the problems with the artificial ponds that are created for immersion. She says, “The pulp that is collected from these ponds need to be recycled and can be also used for making walls. However, if we throw it in the dustbins again like garbage, it tends to increase the carbon footprint.” Last year, an IIT Bombay report, based on a nine-month water study of the Kasardi River in Navi Mumbai, revealed that the river had become acidic, highlighting the seriousness of the issue. As a result, no rituals were allowed on the river for the eight days of the festival.

 Focusing on the need for the legislative to work on the orders of the high court to implement the bans on the PoP idols, Gabriel also states that initiatives like making tree Ganesha idols, and immersing in gardens and buckets can be adopted by people. “As a precautionary measure, the authorities can create artificial ponds on the sea shores where people go for immersion so that they can be prevented from polluting the ocean,” she says adding that a combined approach of Science and arts is essential to teach the younger generation, the solutions to these age-old problems. 

Taking the problems into account, Rohan R. Kotwalkar, an environmental activist says, “The paints used to decorate the idols contain toxic chemicals like lead and mercury, which can leak into the water as the idols dissolved. These metals are bio-accumulative, as once they enter marine life form fish, they pass though the food chain, and end up making fish poisonous for the birds as well as for the citizens.  The immersion of idols has severely damaged the ecological balance of Mumbai's coastline and now it has started impacting on the health of the citizens too.”

While talking to Local Samosa, Kotwalkar, who has been part of various beach cleanups, also highlights that the senior citizens and children are directly affected by the noise pollution during the festival and in some cases, the noise level can reach 110 decibels. “Every year we need to make more awareness and educate citizens on this. For that, all the stakeholders will have to come together – to work for the betterment of our Mother Nature and Mumbai City.”