For all of us celebrating, Ganesh Chaturthi over the weekend was a very new yet memorable experience. One of the biggest festivals in India, it is usually celebrated with uproar and fervour! But this year around, owing to the Coronavirus pandemic, the festivities have been limited to our own homes and have been a little different. For actor Aadar Jain, the Ganpati festival was always a moment to celebrate with family, friends, relatives, and unknown visitors who came for the darshan. Though Aadar will dearly miss having people and visitors at home, he feels the spirit of the Ganpati festival will still be the same for him and his family.
Aadar said,
We have been celebrating Ganpati at our house for the last 25 years. It’s a very, very special time and occasion at home. It’s a festive period as we are all bhakts of Ganpatiji at home. We keep Ganpati for all 10 days and we really treat him like our dear guest. We decorate the entire house and we make the house very festive and we have a lot of visitors coming over. However, this time it’s going to be different due to the COVID situation we can’t be having any visitors. Of course, we will be doing zoom and facetime calls for people to join in for the aarti, etc.
The young actor, who is currently busy with his next film Hello Charlie, says,
First time in 25 years we will not be having visitors. It’s going to be a private affair keeping the safety measures in mind. However, it will still be as festive and special because the festival means a lot to us. We obviously will be sad that visitors can’t come over and do the darshan as a lot of people use to come over and pray to our Ganpati as they believed in it. Over the past 25 years, our house has been open to anybody and everybody from all walks of life for darshan. Unfortunately, this year due to the COVID situation, we will have to follow the safety measures and protocols.
Aadar and his family will be doing Visarjan at home and they have opted for eco-friendly Ganpati this time. He says that every year on Visarjan, they used to go to Chowpaty for immersion. However, this year, they won’t be doing that. This is the first time he says they have got an eco-friendly Ganpati and he shares that he is extremely happy and proud of it.
He further added,
It is very important that while we do immerse our Ganpati in the future we should be doing it in an eco-friendly manner and be cautious to protect the environment. We are going to do the immersion at home for the first time. There will be no dhol baaja and we will be doing the immersion in a quiet manner at home.
Sharing what he prayed to Bappa for this festival, he said:
This year, I pray to Ganpati Bappa for love, happiness, good health, prosperity, and success for my family, friends, colleagues, loved ones and for everyone who is suffering. I hope there is more peace and positivity in the world. I really hope and pray that Ganpati Bappa takes away this pandemic along with him and brings back some normalcy to everyone’s life and helps us overcome this virus.
We hope everyone had a great Ganpati weekend.