Festivities must be in line with COVID protocols

It is raining festivals now with Mumbai gearing up for Navratri, Dussehra and Diwali.

The festivals of dance and light, usually see crowds at pandals, worship and merry-making after sunset. It is a joyous time, with one festival signalling the triumph of good over evil.

Like the Ganesh Chaturthi festival, these too should be marked in a low-key manner. In fact, service to society, awareness and educational initiatives should replace the traditional way in which these festivals are held.

During the Ganpati fest, this paper had run an in-depth report about Mumbai's iconic Lalbaug mandal. The venue, which was seen as the epicentre of the 10-day event in Mumbai, would usually see hordes of devotees and the Lalbaug serpentine queues were part of festive folklore.

This year though, the organisers responded and reshaped the festival in sync with the outbreak. The mandal's mammoth machinery used the venue and the timeframe to hold a blood and plasma donation camp. They also dug into their resources and honoured families of police personnel through cash donations. These families had lost a loved one, in the line of COVID-19 duty.

Every mandal or pandal may not have the same resources to organise events on the scale of what Lalbaug did. They can though, heed the city's call, highlighted on Wednesday on the front page of this paper, to hold health camps which would be extremely beneficial during the crisis.

If a full-fledged health camp is not possible for a single mandal, a couple of Navratri organisers can come together and organise it.

The important aspect is to be of service to the community, demonstrate responsibility amidst celebrations and urge people to remember that we are going through unusual times, which call for apt responses.

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