DAHI HANDI PATHAKS
Around 3,000 Dahi Handi organizers in the city, out of which 400 or so organized by politicians at major locations like Dadar, Thane, Bandra, Navi Mumbai .There’s an entire network of local retailers and major corporaters which underwrites the organizers; riding on the back of influential political leaders, they are assured of thousands of footfalls at the venue and several times more eye-balls as regional television channels extend live coverage .This commercial dahi handi, unlike its purely religious avatar, is a noisy, raucous and reckless sport. These cash prizes are given away to the winners depending upon how many tiers are displayed, and how professionally it is carried out. Mumbai has around 1,500 to 2,000 Govinda pathaks of which only three to four pathaks can form a nine-tier human pyramid, 20 to 25 pathaks can form an eight-tier human pyramid. Thus trying to understand these systems we interviewed some of such mandals across the city. And created a questionare with the responses we got in order to find out the commonalities in networking pattern and their functioning.
The naik’s were setting up their beds to end the tiring day, on the other hand Sunil was ready for the most joyous part of his day. As the clock struck 10 he knew it was the time to forget all his work and head directly to the ground. He wore his jersey and was searching for all his accessories while the family had just accepted his passion for the sport. He stepped out of the house and shouted, “Pakya, Sushil , Sameer chala re ani yetana chotu la pan gheun ya aaj .” And they all started moving towards the ground together. On the way Sushil talking to his son, “Chal lavkar practice chalu jhali aselh apan late jhalo tar sir oradtil.” Saying this they enter the ground and see the practice session started on the ground and group members forming tiers on top of each other.
"Pintya, apan saglayat vartey asloh tari pan, bhiti vatun gheu nokos. Khali jeh sagle dada ani sir ahet na teh aplyala kahi hou denar nahit. Heh nehmi lakshat tevh. Kadhi pan tula bhiti vatu lagli tar. Atta net ubha raha, ani jastey halu nokos balance maintain thev."
Kamlesh joined and was talking on the phone with the corporator,
K : Amhi tumchya event la yeyce ki nhi udya ?
C: Aho tumchya sarkha mothey mandal amchya event la nhi aleh tar kaseh chalel
K: Pan amchya mandhana che kay ?
C: Tumchey mandal amchya saathi khup mahatvachey ahe pan amhi tumhala handi phodayla deu sakat nhi
K : Pan amhi 9 thar lau ki tumchya venue la gardi hoil heh baghayla
C : Hoh pan amhi dar varshi Jai govinda Dahi handi pathkala deto amchi handi, karan teh pawar siranchey avadtey ahet , tumhi salaami sathi ya apan mandhana chey baghu kay karayche teh.
K: Chalel amhi salaami saathi yeu faktey.
Sunil smirked and whistled for everyone to gather and get ready with their head gears onn. The group started dividing , the base supporters started forming a circle in the center. Next tier started climbing on each others shoulders getting in their positions. While others were applying soil on their hands . “Chala re pachvya tharachi mule varti chadha”,
Swapnil says
“Kay re mulano jhali ka udya chi tayari, sagle gharatun baher yeun baghayla pahije.” A person from the group says “hoh kaka tumhi bagha atta amhi kaseh vajto teh.” As soon as he finishes his sentence within a min he instructs his group to start and the music starts playing. Hearing the melody the kids and all the other group members couldn't hold their excitement and they started dancing together.
We are live today seeing the practice session of Jai jawan govinda pathak. You can see how the band is practicing here in full force for the event tommorow and on the right side u can see our players getting ready for the day. Also we would like to thankyou guys for supporting us and giving us love, please keep the support alive and follow us on instagram, youtube and facebook.
Sunil firmly said, “kahi garaj nahey naaven lokan chi aplyala aple amdar patil saheb aapli kalji ghetil. Apan practice kadhey lakshey deuya.” And then he shouted for everyone to come together and instantly they started murmuring the prayer before they started practicing.
“Chala sagle ata eka lainit ubhe raha. Aaj saglyan chey weight mi ani Pankaj check karnar ahe.” Some of them started forming que around the table set on one of the corners of the huge land. While some of them until then started warming up until .
The dahi handi pathakas are a interesting example of how an organization can work completely on the basis of mutuality and friendships without formalizing the system . Therefore the idea was to study these mutuality and explore the various existing networks formed due to these mutuality. Due to which a lot of coordinates which are either the existing members or some outsiders are involved in the process. But due to these friendships the need for most of the external links are felt forced. And maybe the entire system can be handled just by the pathak members and involving their families in the process. Thus finding the interests and allotting some tasks to the family members can add coordinates in the system from the group instead of connecting to indirect coordinates in the system. And hence trying to just nudge the existing mutuality to create newer networks of organizations. Thus further leading to ease in the functioning and organization of the event.