Child cancer patients immerse 'chocolate Ganesha' in milk at Parel hospital

Ganesh Chaturthi festival is always celebrated with the lot of enthusiasm and devotion in Maharashtra and this event certainly was touching ans special. The Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital, Parel, put a unique spin on the immersion of the Lord Ganesha by immersing the idol made out of chocolate in 10 litres of milk. The idea was to save the environment while also maintaining religious aspects of the festival among patients at the hospital.
'We wanted to lighten the mood in the hospital and also make it a safe, environment-friendly immersion'

Around of the 15 kids made the idol using 1.5 kgs of chocolate. Due to the coronavirus pandemic this year, devotees have been asked to immerse Ganesh idols within the closest proximity in order to ensure physical distancing, safety and convenience and the kids chose to do so this way.
Speaking about this, Dr Minnie Bodhanwala, EOC, Wadia Hospital, said: “We are very pleased to see the idol made by kids from the chocolate under the guidance of a teacher. Lord Ganesha known as Vignaharta, always gives strength and blessings to everyone to fight ailments and be a warrior. To overcome the situation and lighten the festive mood in the hospital, we did the unique initiative activity of idol immersion in milk. Kids love it anyway and chocolate milk is rich in calcium. We thought this would make kids happy and it would be safe and environment friendly.”
Arshiya Shaikh Mohd Salim, (13), a patient of leukaemia, who completed the treatment of cancer and won her battle after two-and-a-half years, was present for the visarjan. She says, “ This is my favourite festival and I was very happy to be a part of the idol making. We all enjoyed a lot and forgot all our pain in this activity. I pray to Bappa to keep everyone safe and healthy.”