Perhaps this is today's world record most secular confluence of people belonging to different religions, castes, creed, age, nation, states, geography right at the SEA BED of Mumbai Girgaum Chowpatti, the place which had caused nightmare to Mumbai during 26/11 bomb blast and a place where the dreaded terrorist now surviving and counting days was caught by daring Mumbai Police.
Today is the 10th day of Ganesh Festival and huge one story height Ganesh idols are being immersed since 14 hours and it is still going on and will continue past midnight 24 hours since there are long long Qs of Ganesh Idols. I was totally lost in the midst of this human ocean on the sea front or the most exotic Queen's Neckless as it is called. (Posting more photo feature type photos).
Millions people have been flooding the area amid tight security (to prevent any untoward incidences) since 14 hours. And interestingly millions have been coming in (photo 1) and going out (second photo).
The whole festive exercise is a long process, the idols are dismantled from the pendals far away from the sea front and mounted onto big trucks or trailers and people from each pendals (associations, trusts who run the ten day festival) walk in the procession chanting songs, beating jumbo drums, dancing.. once they reach the seafront, they are supposed to register their name and numberwise they are allowed entry into the deep sea to dip the jumbo idols as there is an OCEAN of human beings on the sea front (see all photos). I am uploading more videos.
Leaving aside the religious touch, the festival like this is a fitting response to terrorism.. because the crowd reflects the unity here.. there were so many foreigners taking photosand shooting videso, there were old, there were kids (see in photo 1 child sleeping on the sand), there were women, there were police,there were volunteers, there were scores of vehicles....it is today's best photo feature.....post by shripad bhat from Mumbai.
PS: This was one of the few sea fronts or beaches where millions have (or still) thronged to give adieu to the elephant God, Lord Ganesh...where idol immersion took place as Dadar beach (in central Mumbai), Juhu Beach quite 15 min from airport, and many other beaches. but I could not go to other locations as there were total traffic jams, absence of public transport in many places. Trains were running, roads were flooded with humanity, I watched 2-3 hours shooting photos. and some kids also took my photo while I was shooting saying: hey uncle pls smile we want to take your pic. Today thousands of such huge idols are being immersed all over the state of Maharashtra and in other states as the ten day comes to an end today. In many places where there is access to sea then they dip it in river or lakes and in rural areas in the well.
It may be noted that the whole culture of modern ganesh festival in public was believed to be started by Bal Gangadhar Tilak one of aggressive freedom fighters in India. Since gathering and congretation for freedom fighting was not allowed, this festival was started as a medium and it was started nearby the area what you see in the photo, called Girgaum in south-west Mumbai.
The area was dotlined with security forces, volunteers, safety combrades (in cases somebody drown they swing into action with life jacket), watch tower.