Thursday, August 17, 2006
Janmashtami ritual craze mounts
For Mumbaikars, the contest to get to the pot of gold on Janmashtami, the day the city enthusiastically celebrates Krishna’s birthday, is getting bigger, meaner and more lucrative than ever before.
Topping the list this year is a handi at Thane. The prize: a whopping Rs 5 lakh
Last year, the highest handi stood at 36 feet, about the top floor of a four-storeyed building. This time, it has reached 40 feet. Mumbai’s tallest handi, near Dadar’s Kohinoor cinema, was last broken by a 10-year-old girl, Prajakta Pandurang Tawri.
Reflecting the times, even the Govindas, the fiercely competitive crew of handi-crackers, are sponsored by companies, Indian and multinationals alike, often by powerful and moneyed individuals.
Some of the better known Govindas, such as those representing Shiv Sena MLA Bala Nandgaonkar’s Mazgaon Dakshin Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal, will be sporting logos of United Breweries and Reliance on their T-shirts this year.
With the stakes rising, the Govindas have begun training weeks before the event. Prajakta says it is easy to train because most of her “team mates’’ are her friends and like her. She also has her father, an expert Govinda, to look up to for inspiration. “The money is there but we are made to believe that a lot of reputation is also at stake,’’ she adds.
Indian Telegraph, Aug 20.
Topping the list this year is a handi at Thane. The prize: a whopping Rs 5 lakh
Last year, the highest handi stood at 36 feet, about the top floor of a four-storeyed building. This time, it has reached 40 feet. Mumbai’s tallest handi, near Dadar’s Kohinoor cinema, was last broken by a 10-year-old girl, Prajakta Pandurang Tawri.
Reflecting the times, even the Govindas, the fiercely competitive crew of handi-crackers, are sponsored by companies, Indian and multinationals alike, often by powerful and moneyed individuals.
Some of the better known Govindas, such as those representing Shiv Sena MLA Bala Nandgaonkar’s Mazgaon Dakshin Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal, will be sporting logos of United Breweries and Reliance on their T-shirts this year.
With the stakes rising, the Govindas have begun training weeks before the event. Prajakta says it is easy to train because most of her “team mates’’ are her friends and like her. She also has her father, an expert Govinda, to look up to for inspiration. “The money is there but we are made to believe that a lot of reputation is also at stake,’’ she adds.
Indian Telegraph, Aug 20.
# posted by uv : 5:14 AM
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