Sanjeev Kapoor recalls Ganeshotsav meals and visarjan at Juhu Beach

Sanjeev Kapoor’s first close view of Mumbai’s Ganeshotsav was from the top floor of a hotel on Juhu Beach, where he worked after moving to the city from New Zealand in the early 1990s.

Having grown up and worked in North India, Kapoor said he had not encountered the festival on Mumbai’s scale before. He remembers watching the visarjan from the hotel and seeing what he called a “sea of devotion”. Since then, Ganpati visits have become part of his family routine: he visits Alyona Kapoor’s family Ganpati and meets relatives and friends who bring idols home.

The meal at Alyona Kapoor’s family home, he said, is a simple lunch cooked by her aunts. Modaks are essential, but his strongest food memories are of churma laddoos and rawa laddoos made each year by Alyona’s mother.

Kapoor still puts ukadiche modak first, citing its rice-flour shell and coconut-jaggery filling, while also enjoying preparations such as patoli, steamed in turmeric leaves. For households expecting visitors through Ganeshotsav, he recommends planning dishes ahead, keeping snacks ready and making sweets such as laddoos in advance.

He also suggested clay idols, natural colours and smaller idols that can be immersed at home as practical choices for more mindful celebrations.