Goa gears up to welcome Lord Ganesha

Panaji, Sept 7: Its homecoming for several Goans when the ten-day long Ganesh Chaturthi also known as 'Chovoth' would be celebrated across Konkan including the state from September 9 onwards.

The Konkan Railway Corporation Limited has been running special trains to clear the festival rush while the interstate buses connecting Goa to Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and other destinations has passengers arriving in the state.

"Its usually a time for families to come together and spend time. Its a reunion," Sanket Bandodkar, a youth living in Valpoi village said. Sanket who is studying in a college in Panaji will return to his native in Valpoi on Sunday. "The entire family will be back only after immersing Lord Ganesh which will be on the fifth day," he said.

Ganesh Chaturthi is commonly known as Chovoth in Goa wherein almost all the Hindu households worship the elephant headed God.There are more than 100 sarvajanik ganeshotsav mandals, where larger than life size Idols are worshipped by the community.

"From today Goa will be in the villages. Energy will flow, closed houses will open, old friends will meet, minds will reconnect, hearts will beat," commented Sandesh Prabhudesai, renowned journalist, who has his ancestral house at Mashem in Canacona taluka.

Lord Ganesh is usually worshipped in ancestral houses located in villages which are usually abandoned as there is migration towards the urban areas.

Meanwhile when the entire state is gearing up to celebrate the festivities, the mood is somber in the mining belt where the economic activity has ceased for last one year, after export of iron ore was banned.

"You go to the mining belt and see, people are not interested in celebrating Chovoth there. They are waiting for the mining to resume so that they will have money at hand for spending," said Raju Mangueshkar, leader of Goa Mining People’s Front (GMPF). Almost seven talukas, all rural, are affected with the current ban on the mining activity in the state.

PTI