Ganesh Puja celebrated in city

BHUBANESWAR: The temple city was geared up for the celebration of Ganesh puja on Wednesday. Most of the cultural and educational institutions, social clubs and street clubs organised the puja which was celebrated with utmost solemnity, religious fervor and gaiety. The city was feeling the spiritual fervor with the auspicious occasion of worshipping Lord Ganesh.

The students of the Government along with the private educational institutions were busy in the puja in their own institutions and enjoying the occasion by visiting different puja pandals with friends in city. Especially worshipping puja in the Saraswati Sishu Mandirs in the city was different from others as the students worshipped the god chanting hymns like priests. The cultural institutions and social clubs, who were organising the puja in a planned way to observe it with great pomp and splendour, attracted the attention of the city devotees to their puja mandaps.

The attraction of the puja is their respective pandals draped in different colours and in different themes, ideas and innovative arts and designs. According to a member of Shri Jagannath Social Club in IRC Village, they hired an artist to make the design of their puja pandal like India Gate. The pandal is made up of different colored and designed materials, while the big idol mesmerised the devotees of the city.

Excluding the idol, one of the most important and attractive thing in the puja pandals is the archway which is specially designed in an innovative way to make the puja mandap attractive. Among the high-pitched loudspeakers and multi-coloured lights at the various puja pandals of the city, the festoons and archways were given priority as it is the gateways to the pandals, said an organiser of Ganesh puja at Nayapalli.

Some archways were looking like temples, mosques, churches and boats made up of shole and bamboo sticks. The price of idols of lord Ganesh worshipped in different puja pandals starting from at least Rs 500 to Rs 25,000 depending the design and quality of the idols. Some of the idols were made up of grains like dal and rice, materials like concha and clamshell and other designed materials.

Ganesh puja has brought joy and exuberance among the inhabitants of the city once again. They believe that Ganesh puja not a puja only, but it is the original feeling and experiencing of their old tradition and worshipping the pioneer among the gods for good education and stress free life.