Journalism of Courage
It’s season time for the famed Ashtavinayak tour but the swine flu fear has drastically curtailed the number of pilgrims opting for the two day trip this year
Every year,at this time of the year,thousands of people come to Pune to visit Ashtavinayak temples. Each of these temples,which are situated around Pune,carries a different mythology,history and also a different Ganesha idol. But this year,the inflow of such devotees is comparatively less. The swine flu scare has hit the business of city-based travel and tour operators who organise Ashtavinayak tours.
We used to get customers from Mumbai,Nashik,Nagpur and even far off places like Chennai. But this year the business has gone down by 70 per cent,people are scared to even move around Pune,leave aside travelling outside Pune, says Nisar Sayyed,Arya Travels,Magarpatta City.
According to Shashank Belsare,at Sudin Travels & Forex Pvt Ltd,even the number of queries has reduced drastically. He also adds that the Ashtavinayak tours,which last for two days and are operational throughout the year,always accounted for the big inflow of revenues for the company but mainly the months like July and August saw a big lull. Where in a month Sudin Travels used to organise tours for at least 10 parties especially from cities like Hyderabad and Ahemadabad,now there are hardly two.
Seventy-year-old Vasundhara Madhusudan Latkar,who had visited Ashtavinayak in the year 1998 and also 2008,has no plans to go for any such tour. Recalling the trip,she says,I remember my friend from Ahemdabad had joined me and we really enjoyed visiting the temples. But looking at the present situation,I would not even advise anyone to go.
Situated at Model colony,for Skyline Tours and Travels bookings and queries for the same used to pour in from the month of June for the Ashtavinayak tours. Out of the total bookings,which mainly used to be from Mumbai and Konkan side,around 70 per cent have been cancelled in the last one-month and they are expecting some more cancellations in the near future. Urmila Jamadagni,says,There used to be few bookings for Ashtavinayak in the month of October also. But even they have been cancelled,since Diwali holidays in most of the schools have been cancelled. Our only hope left now is Christmas vacations.
One such customer who opted to cancel his trip is Jaswant Singh Thapa,a businessman,who has already been to Ashtavinayak twice. He had planned to visit it again this year but changed his mind due to the fear of H1N1 virus. My first visit for Ashtavinayak was in the year 2003 followed by another visit in 2008. It was a great two-day long religious trip with family and friends. Although this year also we had planned the trip to Ashtavinayak but cancelled it last minute. Its a precautious move. Like everyone,even we are avoiding crowding places, says Thapa.
