In September 2017 we spent a couple of weeks driving around Goa, during the tail end of the monsoon, which happened to be the same time as the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. While Hoshner has often photographed the Ganesh celebrations at home we have never really experienced the festival outside of Mumbai.

So when a friend invited us to visit her family’s ancestral home in Mandrem village of North Goa and participate in their Ganesh Celebrations we were stoked.

In this episode we chat with Zinnia Mandrekar, a filmmaker and member of the Deo Mandrekar family, who trace their lineage back over 400 years, about her family’s unique Ganesh celebrations, which brings together members of the clan from all over the world every year. (Spoiler Alert: It’s very different with harmonicas, guitars and the Beatles replacing drums and bollywood dhinchak!)

Zinnia has also made a lovely film, documenting her family’s history, their ties with this part of Goa, and the annual Ganesh festival in which the whole village participates together, so check that out too!

You can visit the Goa page on our Blog for more stories of our explorations around offbeat Goa

If you liked this episode all previous episodes from earlier seasons are also available right here on our blog, so do give them a listen!

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