City gears up for Ganesha festival

HYDERABAD: A day before the start of the 10-day Ganpati festival on Wednesday, Hyderabad was seen gearing up for the celebrations in a big way. Ganesh idol sellers were busy as were apparel outlets, sweet shops and florists, who were seen doing brisk business in all parts of the city.The festivities, which begin on Thursday, started off with citizens having already settled into a holiday mood, due to Eid. Pandals in old and new parts of the city were given final preparations like lighting, and decorations. "Everything is in order at most places. While we are looking forward to it, we just hope rain does not make things difficult," said Dharemdra Goel, president of Bhagyanagar Utsav Committee, which oversees the conduct of festivities in the city.Big and small Ganesha idols were being taken to various pandals, to be unveiled on Thursday morning for pujas. The heavy rain that lashed across the city on Wednesday afternoon saw traffic coming to a standstill in various parts with people making way for the big Ganpati idols to be taken to pandals. Flower markets in areas such as Ameerpet and Moazamjahi were seen buzzing through the day with people buying marigold flowers in bulk to decorate the Ganesh pandals. Supermarkets were packed to capacity with people buying groceries and sweetmeats for the festival.Sweet shops which were slack during Ramzan, witnessed a surge in customers on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. "Our sales were not very good until last night. But today it is going up thanks to Eid and Ganesh Chaturthi," said Amit Aggarwal of Agra Sweets in Old City. With Dasara and Diwali lined up, sweet shops have more reasons to be happy despite the increased cost of sugar and other material. "Last month our business was slow, but it has picked up since morning. We expect better sales than last year. But the profit will not be much this time with the cost of ingredients, including sugar has gone up," said Ajay Kumar Singh, manager, Bikanerwala, Banjara Hills. The preparations for this year's festivities have been on a bigger scale. There are as many as 60,000 big and small pandals planned that will house idols this year as against 45,000 last year. Organisers of the city's biggest Ganpati pandals say settings are lavish, idols off-beat and 'puja' preparations elaborate this year. The biggest Idol in the city, the Khairatabad ganesh is another testimonial to the grandiose. The idol stands at 52 feet this year, two feet taller than last year and will be decorated with garlands worth Rs 10,000 every day. "Apart from the garland, flowers worth Rs 70,000 were ordered for the first day. For the rest of the days the flower budget is kept to Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000," said S Sudarshan, chairman, Sri Ganesh Utsav Samiti, adding that the 'laddu' this festival that was estimated to be 1,622 kg will weigh a 2,200 kg and is being donated by a sweet merchant of Kakinada district.