Nalasopara mandal offers to take care of injured govindas

This announcement proved a boon for 30-year-old Pravin Sunil Rahate, a resident of Nalasopara (west) who had injured his spine two years ago when the pyramid that he was a part of, crashed.

Breaking away from the tradition of only organising human pyramids, inviting celebrities and playing loud music, a Dahi Handi mandal in Nalasopara has focused on helping govindas who have been injured while forming the pyramid.

Pravin Rahate, the injured Govinda who is bedridden since 2014, will now be cared for by a Nalla Sopara based Trust, which would be celebrating a low key Janmashtami this year. (Surendra Negi)

This announcement proved a boon for 30-year-old Pravin Sunil Rahate, a resident of Nalasopara (west) who had injured his spine two years ago when the pyramid that he was a part of, crashed. Rahate has been rendered immobile below his waist and has been bed-ridden since the day of the incident, July 21, 2014. The entire human pyramid had fallen on the base of which Rahate was a part of and it injured his backbone.

As soon as the mandal Ramakant Vaidya Charitable Trust came to know of Rahate’s condition, they sent a team comprising of an orthopaedic surgeon and other medical experts to diagnose him. The team has conducted its primary investigations and the reports are expected to be available soon.

Rahate has been living with his maternal aunt since he was a child as he was an orphan. The widowed aunt is a peon in a school nearby and earns Rs 5000 per month. With that money, it was difficult for Rahate to afford physiotherapy regularly. But he would try and keep himself fit with some basic home exercises.

The Dahi Handi mandal that Rahate was associated with, Shiv Ganesh Mandal, from Moregaon , Nalasopara (east), had also gone all out to help him to get the best of medical assistance. They had also sold their mandal’s office and funded the initial treatment. “We and all the people associated from the mandal have been with him through rough times and will always be there for him,” said one of Rahate’s friends.