“Gowri festival is generally celebrated quietly with poojas at home. The fervour and elation peak after the Ganesha idol comes home,” says Vinaya.
The night-long festivities took off with Id-ul-Fitr. People flocked to mosques for prayers and youngsters hounded the elders for Edi (gifts).
The maximum number of worshippers gathered in mosques between 9.30 am and 9.40 am — the sacred time for prayers. Even the early morning calls for namaz saw a huge response with most men and children wearing the traditional sherwani for prayers.
In Lalbagh, Muslims came out in large numbers under tight police vigil. The centre of attraction, however, was Shivajinagar that is also hosting the nine-day prayers preceding the annual feast of St Mary on September 8.
The main streets of Shivajinagar, with overflowing food stalls and restaurants, and people celebrating their respective festivals, also saw a huge deployment of police personnel. That there was not even a stray incident of violence has proved yet again the cosmopolitan nature of Bangalore.
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