There are small things in life that give us immense pleasure and sense of achievement .. I had an occasion to celebrate the same .. At the outstretch this might seem trivial but ..it gave me immense pleasure and a boost to my conviction of returning back to Pune : participating in a dhol-tasha-dwaj pathak during Pune's GaNpati Festival !
Having born , schooled and lived in Pune in 80-90s .. when traditional Pune was still in existence and the GaNpati Festival with the finale of Ganesh visarjan was one of the liveliest moments of year .. with Dhol-Tasha and Dhwaj played by energetic youth whose energy , so contagious that simply watching them, one could feel it all over the body. In 80s-90s the dhol-tasha pathak was traditionally non-professional and monopolized by the troupes from schools like Dnyan-Prabodhini , Garvare , NuMaVi and RamaNbag . It was a ritual to watch and cheer those school children play during the Ganesh visarjan procession.
Over the years of late 90s and 2000s .. the place of school pathaks ( troupes ) has been taken over by very famously named pathaks .. even the economics of such pathaks makes them a very good seasonal business with high ROI ! Pune has over 46 such registered Dhol-Tasha-Dhwaj pathaks mostly fueled by the energy of the youth from colleges who deligently work as volunteers ..devoting almost 2 months in preparation ! Almost all the pathaks have good assets , free man power and human resources of volunteers and it seems .. they are doing very well !
Back to my story ... during my school days and even college days the only thing that was possible was to watch , listen and appreciate those troupes of the schools that played during GaNpati visarjan procession. However there remained an inner burning urge to participate in such troupes which was left un-attended for years while I left India. The recordings of every year 's visarjan miravNuk always reminded me that this is something I still have not tried in life ...!
This year was the year I decided that I would give it a go...took it as a project ... practiced daily for 2-3 hrs from Aug 11th to Sept 30th with the pathak (troupe) ...dhol -tasha - Dhwaj in a traditional Puneri way ! :)
Pathaks are full of energetic young people who almost instill energy and vigor in you .. they were inspirational and energy boosting for every day grueling practice of almost 3 hrs for a month ! That group effort ...energy of the young people is absolutely invigorating ..
Enjoyed each and every moment of practice every day ..shared numerous moments of shear happiness , had new learning experience almost every day ...and finally was successful in playing for processions ! :)
Thanks to all the young friends from ' Rudra ' who really need to be credited for the success and fun of this personal project of mine ! Thanks all .. ! :)
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