23 September,2026 07:49 AM IST | Mumbai | Ritika Gondhalekar
The miniature Girgaon installation depicting the neighbourhood’s chawl life and architecture. Pics/Ritika Gondhalekar
Mumbai's Ganeshotsav has grown so big that the size of the idol, grandeur of the pandal, length of the queue, and number of devotees can sometimes seem to matter more than the reason sarvajanik Ganeshotsav was brought into the public sphere in the first place.
Between towering decorations, celebrity appearances, elaborate lighting, social media coverage, and the scramble for darshan, the humble idea of a public festival risks getting buried under the spectacle. But in the narrow lanes of Girgaon, some small mandals are offering a reminder: Ganpati does not have to be grand to be meaningful.
Bags filled with notebooks and water bottles donated to students last year. Pic/By Special Arrangement
[popcorn number="550" desc="No of books donated to Adivasi students in the Konkan region last year" class="Default"]
For mandals such as Fulancha Raja and Keshavji Naik Chawl, Ganeshotsav remains a platform for community service, education and social responsibility rather than a competition for the biggest idol or most elaborate pandal. At Fulancha Raja, devotees are encouraged to donate books and stationery instead of conventional offerings such as flowers and sweets.
Keshavji Naik Chawl distributed computers to a rural school for a computer lab. Pic/By Special Arrangement
"It is a deceptively simple change. A garland will fade. A box of sweets will disappear. But a notebook, textbook, pencil or other educational material can uplift someone out of poverty, encourage education and help in having a better future for someone," said Srikant Malkar, vice-president of Gaodevi and JK Building Sarvajanik Shree Ganeshotsav Mandal.
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At historic Keshavji Naik Chawl, where Ganeshotsav has been celebrated since 1893, the celebration remains modest in scale but extends beyond the 10-day festival. The mandal is associated with the early public Ganeshotsav movement and Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak's visit to the chawl in 1901.
Srikant Malkar, VP, Gaodevi and JK Building Sarvajanik Shree
"The vargani collected for the festival does not simply disappear into ten days of decoration and celebration. We conduct medical camps and have used the amount collected as vargani - donations from families living in the chawl - for educational initiatives, including helping establish laboratories at rural schools. In other words, our festive celebration does not end with visarjan," said Harshad Shirsat, a member of the Keshavji Naik Chawl's mandal.
At Amrutcha Raja, the pandal itself becomes a lesson in Girgaon's past. Instead of filling the space with an extravagant backdrop, the mandal has created a miniature Girgaon, recreating its chawls, lanes, architecture and community life while showing how the neighbourhood has changed. For older residents, it offers nostalgia. For younger visitors, particularly Gen Z and Gen Alpha, it is intended as a crash course in the character of their own neighbourhood.
Pandurang Bagkar, vice-president of Gaodevi and JK Building Sarvajanik Shree Ganeshotsav Mandal
"A child who has grown up seeing Girgaon through redeveloped buildings and contemporary city life can walk into the pandal and see how the neighbourhood once looked, how its communities lived close to one another and how common spaces became the centre of social and cultural life," said Mayuresh Arte, the concept designer behind the installation.
The miniature Girgaon installation at the Ganeshotsav pandal
This year, the mandal plans to increase the number of books and other educational materials donated. "Today, Ganeshotsav is increasingly becoming about how attractive your pandal is, how big your idol is and how many people you can bring.
Books donated to Adivasi students by Fulancha Raja mandal. Pic/By Special Arrangement
We want to remind devotees that an offering does not have to end at Bappa's feet. If that offering can reach a child who needs a book or stationery, that is a much more meaningful celebration for us," said Pandurang Bagkar, another vice-president of Gaodevi and JK Building Sarvajanik Shree Ganeshotsav Mandal.
The miniature recreates the distinctive character of Girgaon's chawl life, including the different colours and identities of homes within the same building. It also depicts festivals such as Ganeshotsav, Dahi-Handi, Gudhi Padwa, Christmas and Sankranti.
Mayuresh Arte, concept designer of the miniature Girgaon installation
"While we were brainstorming, we realised that the newer generation barely knows about the actual character of Girgaon. While we have also shown how the area has developed and adapted to modern infrastructure, we wanted to show from where we began, especially because this is the first year that we are celebrating Ganeshotsav in our new (redeveloped) building," said Arte.
