Perched in a
beautifully decorated makhar with the
matoli above, Lord Ganesha is offered his favourite sweet – a platter of
twenty-one homemade modaks. An event that binds the family together, this
festival sees the women of the house, the mother, daughters, daughters-in-law,
etc working together in the kitchen, preparing for the sumptuous feast. In
Merces, the Narvekar family with over 50 members come together at their
ancestral house to prepare and serve delicious sweets.
Women
start preparing different sweets at least a week before Ganesh Chaturthi. Modak
is considered Lord Ganesha’s favourite and different varieties of modaks,
prepared using different ingredients like wheat flour, maida with dal, scraped
coconut and jaggery are presented to him. They are shaped by hand and then
steamed or deep fried. This year, chocolate modaks were a favourite. Modaks and
nevryos are considered the most important sweets for the festival,
especially to serve the visiting guests. Nevryos can be made with
different types of fillings, such as rava, channa dal, moong dal, etc. The ones
stuffed with scraped coconut are called khobreache nevryo. Other sweets
include shankarpali, kapa made from sugar or coconut, besan ladoos, rava
ladoos and wheat flour ladoos. Godshe is prepared as a dessert using shabbu
danna and jaggery.
