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Meet the Yes and No Goddess of Worli Koliwada

The Golfa Devi temple in Worli Koliwada, which is the most visited by the locals in the area, is famous for the way devotees communicate with the Goddess

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The temple is in the interiors of Worli village
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 If you’re coming to South Mumbai from the Bandra-Worli SeaLink and turn left at Worli, you approach the regional office of Mumbai’s coastguard. If you take a left turn from there and start walking up towards Worli Fort, you will pass through the local fishing village, which can—because of its solitude despite being close to the city—give you a feeling that you’re outside Mumbai. You proceed walking on the inclined road that leads to the heritage structure. While taking that walk uphill, you pass by a number of houses and local shops. Sometimes, two-wheelers and taxis driven by locals pass by and enter the pathway that connects an old Bombay that is still frozen in time with Mumbai where one constantly sees development happening.

 

A unique way of communicating


Approximately 10 per cent into the walk towards the fort, one stops at Golfa Devi Mandir. The temple, which is over 700 years old, was renovated 15 years ago. The priest, who didn’t want to be named, tells us that fishermen usually come here to pray for a good catch. “In addition, people come here to make wishes. However, they need to ask questions that can be only answered with a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’. We put two magnets on the Goddess’s ears and if the one on the right falls off first, it’s a yes. If the one on the left falls off first, then it’s a no,” the priest explains.

Along with Golfa Devi, there are two other statues of Goddess Sakbadevi and Goddess Harbadevi. The goddesses are worshipped by the koliwada and the temples are decked up during prominent festivals like Dusshera. “She is our Mother Goddess and it’s fair that we pray to her,” says a local resident, who only goes by his surname, Surve.

 

The case of the wall


Most of the residents of the village visit the temple to ask for a good catch or to ask about financial prospects and in some cases, about whether they will ever tie the knot. However, some interesting anecdotes have come out of this place. Roxanne Bamboat, who writes about food and travel under the alias The Tiny Taster, tells dna that during her trip to the temple, she was told of how the villagers nearly went against the advice of the Goddess. “Worli Village still has a panchayat and they wanted to build a wall to prevent the high tide from coming in,” says Roxanne, while recalling the incident told to her during her trip.

She says that the villagers went to the temple and asked whether it was wise to build a wall. “The Goddess said no, but the villagers did not pay heed to this warning. They called a structural engineer and told him about the plan to build the wall. After several inspections, he told the locals that by building a wall, the villagers would cause more damage than earlier and that constructing the structure was a bad idea. The villagers then realised that they should have listened to the Goddess when she ‘warned’ them of the consequences,” laughed Roxanne, adding that it was a good way to draw the attention of visitors.

To be honest, it was what drew us to the story in the first place.
 

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