SURAT: Bhaktas gyrated around Ganpati Bappa keeping in sync with foot-tapping DJ beats and dancing for hours on the road to Dumas seashore, which is about 15 km from Parle Point area. But after all of this, the ritualistic send-off didn’t happen. Reason: The high tide ebbed by the time the entourage managed to reach its destination.
As a result, 100-odd big idols of Lord Ganesha could not be immersed on Thursday. The idols had to wait in the beach for immersion till Friday afternoon when the tide would return. On Thursday, the immersion process of nearly 60,000 Ganesha idols in 21 different artificial ponds and at Hajira and Dumas seashore started late due to heavy rains in the morning hours up to 10am in the city. Nearly 3,300 bigger idols were immersed in the sea at two spots of Hajira and Dumas, but some got delayed.
“We were waiting for the whole afternoon with good amount of water from the high tide to immerse as many big idols as possible in the sea. However, very few turned up for immersion during the afternoon hours,” said a member of a Ganesha Mandal that organizes immersion process on Dumas seashore. He said that the crowd swelled by late evening when the high tide had already ebbed. It is impossible to immerse any idol in the sea after the tide ebbs and so, all the late comers had to keep their idols on Dumas seashore.
In the past, when Ganesha idols could not be immersed in Tapi river due to lack of sufficient water, the bhakts would be pained to see their idols lying on dry land, said an observer, asking who to blame when for bhakts’ delay idols are lying on the shores.