Ganesh Chaturthi in Mumbai: Inside Lalbaugcha Raja’s donation counting process

Mumbai: Even as the iconic 14-foot tall Lalbaugcha Raja leaves its pandal today for immersion, around 70-80 individuals will continue working on the first floor of the venue’s premises till Friday to finish the counting process of the offerings made by millions of devotees this year across the 10-day Ganesh festival.

Current and retired employees of the Bank of Maharashtra and the GS Mahanagar Co-operative Bank, along with members of the Lalbaugcha Raja Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal, come together every year voluntarily to sort out and calculate the monetary value of devotees’ offerings, which are in the form of cash garlands, simple cash including foreign currencies, jewellery, and gold and silver items. Many of these workers have been involved in the annual counting process for over a decade.

“The process starts at 10 am, when our mandal workers collect the deposits made in the collection boxes and bring them to the office”, said Mangesh Dalvi, the treasurer of the mandal. The offerings are then sorted and distributed on tables lined along two walls of a horizontal room.

Then begins the counting process. The bank employees and the mandal workers put the cash in currency counting machines and create perfect money rolls. “We deposit the money at the end of the day in the bank, which is then used for various charitable works done by our organisation throughout the year,” said Dalvi.

Lalbaugcha Raja has collected a record ₹4.66 crore so far this year, he added. Visarjan (immersion) day, which sees the maximum amount of donations, will substantially add to the figure. The average daily footfall at Lalbaugcha Raja is around 1.5 million.

Other offerings, such as jewellery, pieces of gold, silver, and bronze, and expensive clothes are secured safely in a locker, said Dalvi, adding that the items will be auctioned once the counting process is over. “This time, the auction will be held on September 21. If there are any items remaining after the auction, we keep them at our welfare centre, where they are broken into small pieces and sold to the public as prasad,” said Dalvi.

The money is also utilised to fund a dialysis centre operated by the mandal trust, a civic school, a book bank that provides professional skill-based books on rent to students, and a computer centre located within the office premises, which serves 500-600 students, added Dalvi.

Annual habit

For the volunteers involved in the counting process, the work has now become an annual habit.

According to Yogesh Jadhav, 35, manager of the Bank of Maharashtra’s Lalbaug branch, 35 people from the bank are involved in the process, out of which 10-15 are retired employees. Goknath Korde, 52, associated with the GS Mahanagar Co-operative Bank, heads a team of over 30 for the counting. “Twenty years ago, we used to count on the mandap after the event was over. Now, the work has become better after the office space came up.”

Sandhya Mhatre, 67, has been doing this job for more than a decade, even after her retirement seven years ago. “We don’t even need to tell the team what to do. Everybody now follows a routine, like how people work together in a house. We come voluntarily and do this every year.”

Rakhi Dey, 70, who retired from the Bank of Maharashtra in 2014 and has been involved in the counting work since 2012, has witnessed several changes in the process. The sorting process is the toughest, she said, since devotees often attach sweets, pins, idols with the cash, or they pin them together. “We separate it and wash the cash notes then, which then fakes two days to dry. Earlier we used to count manually. Now, machines are there and our work has become easier. It is also a time pass for us since we are retired and don’t have much to do.”

Sanjay Nana Vedak, popularly called as Nana, makes jewellery for the Ganesh idol and leads a five-member team handling the gold and silver donations. The 68-year-old has been doing this voluntarily for the past 15 years now. “This is seva (selfless service) for me,” he said.

The donated items can range from gold Ganesh idols, crowns, necklaces and other jewellery. “First, we understand the value and quality of the gold or silver using computers. We then weigh it on the weighing machine, after which it is sealed and submitted in the safe room. Subsequently, they are auctioned,” said Vedak.