The Festive Spirit

Take the case of Konica Kothari,a second year B. Com student at Symbiosis. A first time volunteer with one of the largest dhol-tasha groups,Naad Bramha,she would work during the time that she got off from playing the dhol tashas to help manage the crowds. “It was difficult to manage the people. They would ask us to start playing and even become really animated if we refused. Nevertheless it was a wonderful experience,” she says.

In fact explaining the entire concept better Shakera Inamdar,who coordinates the National Service Scheme (NSS) in the city says,“We had 5000 students from 107 colleges across Pune who volunteered for the festival. In fact this time was the first year when they were trained in various aspects of disaster management. And the results were there for everyone to see. There was no unseen problems in any parts of the city during the processions.

Inamdar explains that the training will eventually even make its way into the curriculum of colleges. “We can set up a proper team of students who would assist assist the police during events of such large magnitude,” she says. In fact Varun Mulay,a student,who worked throughout the visarjan for 30 hours at a stretch,mentions that the work was difficult and it was not easy to manage the crowds. “It was an ordeal to manage the crowd when the five manache ganpati were making their way through Laxmi road. Not only were the dhol tasha groups pushed to their extreme when they had to repeatedly perform during the festival but the people would get restless when the dhol tasha team took a break. It was difficult for us to manage them but when we had trouble we would ask the cops to come assist us,” he says.

As a rule,mandals and tasha groups travelled during the procession encircled in a ring of chains and ropes,as a safety buffer between the crowds and them. “We had to get more people on the security ring,and ended up using our orange phetas to lengthen the ring. However,the morning was calm and orderly,” says Tejas Bhojane,another volunteer,from Civil Engineering at Abhinav College,adding,“By evening the crowd became really rough. People were hurling abuses,and some drunk people were smotheredwith gulaal and reeking of alcohol. The inebriates were falling onto the dhols,and ultimately we had to call upon the cops to tackle them.”