City soaked in festive spirit & rain

HYDERABAD: The area around Hussainsagar was drenched in a festive spirit on Thursday as thousands of devotees, crammed into trucks carrying Ganesha idols, thronged the roads around it to bid Ganesh adieu. Dressed in traditional attire, people poured in large numbers via NTR Marg and Tank Bund from various parts of the city - right from the early hours of the day.Chants of 'Ganapati Bappa Moriya' and 'Jai Jai Ganesha, Bye Bye Ganesha' reverberated through the area adding to the celebrations.
Some devotees said they had been waiting in line for hours only to witness the grand show. "I came from LB Nagar at 6am as I did not want to miss the Khairatabad Ganesha idol immersion. I come here every year to participate," said Vamshi Krishna. Even the evening showers failed to dampen the enthusiasm of devotees who looked upbeat to dance their way all through to the end of the farewell party. Be it children, parents, youngsters and even senior citizens, everybody was seen dancing en route the Ganesha immersion site. And joining in with them were some policemen too, on duty at Tank Bunk to manage the crowds.
In a video that went viral on social media, the cops were spotted shaking a leg to the tunes of 'Appadi Podu', Bathukamma Bathukamma Uyyalo' and other popular numbers as the crowds walking along the trucks cheered them on.
Another devotee, Vasanth Kumar who got soaked in the rain while taking his Ganesha idol for immersion, said: "I wait for this day the entire year as seeing so many devotees gathered at one place is very thrilling."
Members of some welfare societies and charity trusts distributed snacks, prasadam, food and buttermilk to devotees at Khairatabad, Basheerbagh and Mozamjahi Market. According to civic officials, nearly one lakh idols were immersed in various water bodies across the city. They said the immersions will continue till Friday morning. Apart from Hussainsagar and Saroornagar, as many as 74 ponds were set up specially for PoP idols.