India, Sept. 17 -- Amit Shiwalkar, 48, woke up at 6:00am on Wednesday, early enough to get from Govandi to Parel by 11:00am. Like millions of devotees, Shiwalkar was determined to visit Lalbaugcha Raja, arguably Mumbai's most iconic Ganesh idol, during the ongoing Ganpati festivities. Braving Mumbai's brutal traffic and teeming crowds in Parel, Shiwalkar made it, carried to the pandal on a strip of plywood by three friends.

Shiwalkar, who lives with hereditary spastic paraplegia, a neurological disorder that has severely restricted his mobility, waited nearly an hour at the pandal but could not reach the idol for a close darshan.

"I got only a mukh darshan, a glimpse of Bappa from afar, instead of a charan sparsh darshan, where devotees...