Jay Jay Maharashtra Mazha

The Maharashtra Mazha festival which is a part of the Mumbai Festival was on at the Bandra Reclamation grounds till January 26, 2007 from 11 am to 9 pm.

As soon as you passed through ‘The Gateway of India’, the first stalls were of India Tourism and Maharashtra Tourism who were distributing leaflets and information of various tourist destinations in India and Maharashtra.

The festival showcased traditional arts and crafts with 100 odd stalls and craftsmen from all over India were selling and displaying sarees, jewellery, chappals, paper mache products, paintings, metal artifacts, cane stools, products made from bamboo from the North-East, floor mats, terracotta, candles and lanterns from Pondicherry, papads from Andhra, jute bags from Calcutta, traditional crafts from Saharanpur, wooden toys from the South, Madhubani and Warli paintings. The stall from the Konkan region of Maharashtra was selling cashew and cashew products, kokum (you can make Kokum or Sol Kadhi), saat (mango and jackfruit), mango pulp, tirfal (a spice used in curries), pohe and batata (potato in Marathi) papads and kurdaya. A wooden chess set with brass was available for Rs 3500.

There were food stalls with the usual shev puri, chaats, etc but a Maharashtrian entrepreneur called Dalvi was dishing out nice Maharashtrian fare like ‘Ukdiche Modak’- as steamed modak with coconut and jaggery filling, pohe, batata wada and chivda. You could also taste some wines from Chateau India in the next stall.

There was performances held everyday both at the venue itself (street performances) and on the main stage. These included typical Maharashtrian folk dances and forms from all over the state including Powada, Striyanche Khel, Lavni, Songi Bharud, Rombat, Gazal Sandhya, Tamasha, Vasudev and Marathi Abhangvani.