Taking cue from the rising number of dengue, malaria and chikungunya cases, the Vaiti family in Virar decorated the area around their household Ganesha to depict mosquito breeding in unclean surroundings. So, with thermocol mosquitoes looming overhead, visitors are made to stand in a room covered with mosquito nets. “Jaadu” — the alien, Krish — the local boy and Ganpati are all here spreading the message of cleanliness.

A little farther, women’s empowerment and Sunita Willaims’s space journey is making waves at another Ganesha pandal. “How can we think of killing the girl child when women like Williams are reaching to the skies?” asks Dilip Nije, whose Ganesha sits before a thermocol spaceship zooming off into his ceiling.

This is the small hamlet of Tembi Pada in the distant suburb of Virar, where humble homes have turned into public Ganesh mandals, with almost all residents aping Lokmanya Tilak’s style of using the Ganeshotsav for spreading public awareness.

During the 10-day festival, households are buzzing with people standing in queues for a glimpse of the decorations. Practically all households have devoted an entire room for the idol and the backdrop. “We had to break the wall and join two rooms,” said Parvati Vaiti.

“Ours is a household Ganpati, but we decide to do something different which will spread awareness among people. So we make decorations and sets with a socially relevant theme,” said Shailesh Vaiti.

Former sarpanch Liladhar Patil, whose family was amongst the first to start the theme-based decorations, said, “Earlier we had only mythological stories for themes, but since a large number of people come to see these decorations, we decided to use the platform for spreading social messages.”

Mumbai’s serial bomb blasts aboard the local trains and the 944-mm deluge also appear as themes. The decorations take almost a month to prepare, with the entire family participating. Men and women lend their voice for skits, help out with creating moving objects of thermocol and cloth, some even chipping in with musical scores.

“We do not take any outside help, all the decoration is done by us,” says Ajay Patil, whose decoration is based on the theme of the rich getting richer and the poor becoming worse off. The set includes depictions of current events like farmer suicides, corruption in college admissions, pavement dwellers being run over by rash drivers and even a building collapse.