Click to play videoMumbai: Maharashtra is gearing up for its most popular festival Ganeshotsav with larger than life settings for the Ganpati and this time it is a north Indian, Prasad Verma, who is building the grand structure of the Ganpati.
Verma came to Mumbai five years ago from a small town of Basti in Uttar Pradesh. He has been working as an artisan ever since on the sets of films, in weddings and grand pandals for Ganeshotsav. All the political noise about north Indians not belonging to Mumbai does not affect him.
"I like this work. It is like serving god,” says artisan Verma.
Though Prasad is new to this line of work there are many others like 45-year-old Mohammed Azeem who came to Mumbai from Bihar 20 years ago and has worked over the years for different Ganeshotsav mandals across the city.
"I have worked at many places in Mumbai,” says carpenter Azeem.
While politicians like Raj Thackeray have taken up the cudgels against north Indian migrants in Mumbai, the organisers of Ganeshotsav mandals like these artisans and carpenters swear by their loyalty and skill.
"I have been working with this team for the last four years. There are 75 per cent Muslims here, people from UP, Bihar and Maharashtra, all of them work here with great dedication,” says organizer Fort Ganeshotsav Mandal Ravi Surve.
There are no bells ringing or bhajans being sung as yet but its only inside this huge pandal, where Hindus and Muslims, north Indians and Maharashtrians work together to create perfect setting for their Ganpati so that one truly gets the feeling of a celebration of the festive spirit.
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