Mangna Mangatla Ghevoon Luzar
Maulini Aikatla Amcha Lazaar
Mother Mary was our Only Hope
Mother Mary showed us how if we pray with great faith we can expect the impossible. East Indian Community are no doubt the founders of the Bandra Fair however there is no Community Connect today. The Founders have been sidelined and ignored in this annual festival. For almost a decade we have been requesting that there should be an East Indian Connect to the Bandra Fair through Special mentions, East Indian Marathi masses, East Indian hymns, East Indian Speciality stalls and many others but we were never considered.
Many of our Annual rallies have either started or ended at Mount Mary’s Bandra but it seems to have not mattered to the concerned officials
Authorities, both religious and political who could have done their bit, chose not to do so for reasons best known to them. We reminded them year after year and we were given some irrelevant reasons and kept away. Bandra Fair may be the only such festival in the world that has no exhibit of Native Art and Specialty. The MGP team also met the political Representatives and Municipal authorities besides the church officials for some stalls
to promote local specialty but in vain.
United in prayer we decided to start with the Annual Procession to revive memories of the first such procession wherein the statue of Mount Mary was bought from Mahim Church to Mount Mary Bandra. The Procession started 3 years ago and then we started the Mot Mauli Yatra wherein the Statue of Mother Mary visits Gaothans, the vilage settlement of the East Indian Community. Infact we had a special visit to the Bandra Fair route to identify spots where we could have stalls but had no success. We then made a stop at Mount Carmels which has the famous September Garden. We were informed that the Parish Priest was not there, we then called a Priest and asked him if he could help. And he simply said that we should not expect much but just pray.
Last year the Mount Mary Visit was held at more than 50 Gaothans, an unexpected number for us all. This Year our Tag line says – Don’t Come to Venerate Me this Year, I will come to Visit Your Place. Our prayers seem to have been answered differently. The Pandemic has forced the cancellation of the Mount Mary Festival and Bandra Fair, something the authorities may have never dreamt of. Our devotion gets deeper this year with more Initiatives to promote our Native Devotions – Mount Mary and St.Gonsalo Garcia.
In this tough times, we pray to Mother Mary to wipe out this Pandemic from
this world. We the East Indian Community are fine if we don’t get stalls and
other basic rights as original inhabitants. No stalls has given birth to the
East Indian Baazaar with 4 versions and around 100 Baazaar’s expected within
a year and around more than a 100 Baazaar based businesses all set to join our
wide Network. The East Indian Community will never give up and do the
impossible to see our flag flying high always with the blessings of Mother Mary.
As they say Faith can move mountains and here the faith of our community has
surely moved the Mount Mary from its Religious walls to our Homes in the
Gaothans.
Gleason Barretto, Old Kurla
Mobai Gaothan Panchayat 