With Ganpati and Eid-ul-Fitr, among other festivals, coinciding this September, people from all communities get ready for a long and festive weekend.
Eid-ul-Fitr preparations in the city had already begun long before the sliver of the new moon rose over the horizon on Friday evening, marking the end of a month of fasting. Mohammed Ali Road, the hub of Ramzan activity, came alive with renewed vigour as shopkeepers and stall owners clambered to lay out their goods one last time.
Shoppers jostled with each other to buy articles from numerous street-side vendors.
The evening before Eid is referred to as chaand raat (night of the moon). This is when the three-day-long Eid celebrations begin in an Indian Muslim home.
Women are up most of the night, cooking huge pots of sheerkurma (a sweet dish of milk, vermicelli and dry fruits), applying henna on their palms or just doing last-minute shopping.
In places like Byculla, Parel and Worli in South-Central Mumbai, both Hindus and Muslims thronged the streets on Friday evening as Ganesh Chaturthi falls on the same day as Eid-ul-Fitr this year.
“This is God’s way of propagating communal harmony,” said Tukaram Kadam, a shopkeeper at Lalbaug, who was selling vermicelli, henna cones and skull caps alongside modaks, diyas and Ganpati idols.
“This is what I call the true spirit of Mumbai, where Hindus and Muslims don’t pay attention to political hate-mongering and celebrate each other’s festival with equal fervour,” said collegian Akram Jamal, who was helping his friends at a Ganesh mandal in Byculla after offering his evening prayers.
However, commuters were a harried lot thanks to the bustling markets and roads in the city. Traffic barely moved for hours as customers haggled with shopkeepers on the congested road leading to the station at Andheri (West). “I wish major festivals don’t fall on the same day,” said Sumeeta Chavan, who was in a hurry to reach home and start her Ganesh Chaturthi preparations.
City Muslims also looked forward to a happier Eid with Florida-based pastor Terry Jones cancelling his plans of burning copies of the Koran on 9/11 after talking to American government officials. “The Obama government has succeeded in preventing itself from being perceived of complicity in this act,” said Dr Abraham Mathai, vice-chairman of state minorities commission and general secretary of all India Christian council.
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