Oblations to the palate: The Ganesh Chaturthi platter

The festival, which kicks off on Friday, is never complete without a smorgasbord of delicacies

Living a seashell’s toss away from the beach has plenty of advantages. Not the least being a hot-ticket seat to perhaps Maharashtra’s biggest religious festival, Ganesh Chaturthi. As a child, come September, I’d patiently wait in the veranda of our bungalow for the Ganpati Visarjan floats, tableaux and dioramas to pass by, enveloped in the fragrant miasma of incense sticks and the jhankaar beats of accompanying nankhatai bands. All this, en route to their final destination, where the faithful would immerse their idols of Ganesha into the murky waters of our little patch of the Arabian Sea off the Dadar chowpatty (beach). I was, and still am, particularly partial to the pot-bellied Bal Ganesha idols that I dare say I resembled to a large extent as a chubby adolescent. Speaking of which, it was always the food served during these 10 days that got me all excited and salivating. Indulgent Maharashtrian neighbours would ply us otherwise callously carnivorous lot with trays laden with all sorts of vegetarian, mainly satvik, delicacies. Snacks like puran poli made of flour and filled with sweet lentils and jaggery, srikhand-puri and coconut laddoos were a must.