One of the primary motives for celebrating Ganesh-Utsav was to unite people from small gullies to intricate towers. And Mumbai's Ganseh-Utsav celebrations are incredible in all these things. From small chawls to big skyscrapers, everyone celebrates this festival. In this festive season, a Mumbai based boy Parag Sawant from Lalbaug has created a theme for Ganesh-Utsav, based on the concept of Chawl culture.

Chawls of Mumbai have been well depicted in famous portraits of the city of Mumbai through movies, plays and books. Most visibly existing around Girgaon and South Bombay, chawls have emerged as a culture and today they represent a piece of life in Mumbai.

Parag created a typical chawl and displayed people maintaining the rules of social distancing in this pandemic time by carving people in their respective balconies and Ganpati Bappa in the middle of the chawl's compound with a priest and a man. Everybody stands at their door and participates in Ganaraya's Aarti in his theme. Parag tried to depict the genuine life of people who live in small rooms with a lot of crises. But these people treat Ganpati Bappa as their own child. From kids to adults, all members share in the festivities without any hesitation and there's no discrimination for anyone. 

Putting together the plan of 10 days Ganpati celebration, collection of ‘Vargani’ (monetary help), agreeing on the games and events, managing the ‘Naivaidya’, a type offering to Ganesha, which comes from various houses on various days and organizing for the ‘Visarjan’, the last day, all of this work used to make the chawls a full of life place and the ten unforgettable days were celebrated with full enthusiasm and power.

Parag notified on his Instagram post that, gradually all of the energy and genuineness declined for Ganesh Utsav. Advancement of the city somehow eradicated the authenticity of Mumbai. Now, every year Ganesha-Utsav is organized by the chawl but there's always something missing. But after Coronavirus engulfed the world, people showed up and they felt the significance of being there for each other and the authenticity to celebrate the festivals began appearing again. Parag got motivated by this aspect of life and determined to create a depiction of old chawl culture of Mumbai at his home.

From typical chawl culture of Mumbai to today's transforming world in this pandemic, the young boy created his masterpiece for this year's extraordinary Ganesh-Utsav.