KARUNA SHINSHO, CNN ANCHOR, ASIA TONIGHT: A major festival for a Hindu deity is underway in the Indian city of Mumbai. Devotees are swarming to temples to pray to Ganesha. And as Satinder Bindra reports, they believe the elephant-headed deity protects them from evil.</s>SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's hard to imagine it's 5:00 in the morning. Thousands have been drawn (ph) into temples in Mumbai to pay homage to the Hindu god Ganesha. At the City</s>KISHORE JOSHI, TEMPLE TRUSTEE: We don't think that</s>BINDRA: Ganesha's popularity is evident at this marketplace. Here Ganesha's devotees can buy an idol of their god at prices ranging from $3 to $500. Most of the idols are made of plaster of Paris and can take an average of 15 hours to hand craft. Once these Ganesha's are ready, families take them home. The Punjabi family has just selected their idols and say this is the holiest day in the year for them.</s>RAJESH PUNJABE, TRADER: It's supposed to bring in a lot of peace, prosperity in the house, and carry away all your troubles.</s>BINDRA: The Punjabi family's in the export trade. Ganesha's loved in the business community because many pray to him for commercial success. For the next two days corporate offices, stores and factories in the India's commercial capital will remain closed to give many of the city's 15 million residences time to pray. Meanwhile at the city vaniak (ph) temple, the crowds surge on, many even pushing each other for a glimpse of Ganesha. (on camera): Festivities will continue in Mumbai for several more days, then tens of thousands of these hand-crafted idols will be taken out in huge processions and dipped in the sea. When the idols are immersed, people here believe their troubles too will be washed away. Satinder Bindra, CNN, Mumbai.
Ganesha Devotees Swarm to Temples in Mumbai