Tall Dahi Handi pyramids,big prize money,high political stakes

The scene has already been set with NCP Thane city chief Jeetendra Ahwad and the Shiv Sena’s Pratap Sarnaik announcing mega events on August 14. Thane district Sena chief and legislator Ekanth Shinde and Sena leader Rajan Vichare would follow suit with more such announcements.

Last year,the police had objected to Sarnaik’s Gokulashtami event at Vartak Nagar chowk saying it would block the traffic,and he had to shift it to a municipal ground. Sarnaik was earlier in the NCP and was a close confidant of Ahwad.

Sarnaik had the last laugh as the new venue turned out to be lucky for him. With two mandals forming the ‘unachievable’ nine-storey human pyramid,Sarnaik was all over news channels.

“Even this year,we have announced prize money of Rs 11 lakh for a nine-storey pyramid,” said Sarnaik,founder of the Sanskruti Yuvak Prathisthan that organises the Dahi Handi event.

As a tactic to pull crowds,organisers dole out prize money for all those mandals which even if they do not manage to break the handi,can form the pyramid to a certain level. This keeps mandals queuing up to form the pyramid while the crowd enjoys the live show.

“Irrespective of whether the handi is broken or not,just forming the nine-storey human pyramid is enough to earn the highest prize money of Rs 11 lakh,” said Sarnaik. He adds that a

100 gm gold coin is given to those mandals who make seven rungs of the human pyramid.

At Awhad’s event at Panch Pakhadi,every mandal that makes a seven-storey human pyramid receives Rs 21,000. “The prize for making the tallest pyramid is Rs 21 lakh,” says Awhad. He adds that the total prize money given to all participating mandals for his one-day event totals Rs 30-35 lakh.

Besides the prize money,there is live music by DJs. Ahwad usually ropes in DJ Aqueel and dancers to perform throughout the day while Sarnaik tries to steal the thunder with songs by Suresh Wadkar and troupe for 12 hours at a stretch. The troupe includes Avadhoot Gupte,Swapnil Bandodkar,Ameya Date,Ajit Parab and Vaishali Samant.

Another popular Dahi Handi event in Thane is at Tembhi Naka,literally the mother of all Thane Dahi Handis. Behind this show was Anand Dighe,who put up bigger prize money and got coverage from the Doordarshan. After being telecast on Doordarshan,Tembhi Naka became one of the few Dahi Handis to be covered by the BBC. It is the official Sena event led by Legislator Eknath Shinde and attracts huge crowds and many mandals.