With still more than a week before the Expo/Ganesh Festival of India unfolds in downtown Columbus, Sharvari Kolhatkar already is sharing on the Ganesh Festival Mandal Facebook page bite-sized nuggets of her culture.
Literally.
She recently posted a lengthy list of Indian food to be available for purchase Sept. 11 along Fourth Street for the free event coordinated through the Columbus Area Visitors Center and annual organizers of the festival in part celebrating Ganesh, the Hindu god of wisdom and various elements of India. Part of the idea: The way to feed people others’ culture is to feed them, literally.
So the page contains descriptions of dishes such as simple lemon rice to samosa, which are handmade turnovers stuffed with potatoes and peas. Kolhatkar figures that this, the 17th annual such festival here, could be the biggest ever because it will unfold right on the street.
“Yes, that’s very possible, because we never really have reached much of the local crowd (during the festival),” said Kolhatkar, president of the Columbus Ganesh Mandal (a mandal refers to a local government area). “We understand that, in the past, some local people have been hesitant to come inside The Commons to see all our happenings.
“Now, with it all outdoors, we more readily expect them to come and see some of our culture and explore it.”
