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Youth, children lead Ganesh celebrations at Pune housing societies
A number of housing societies in the city came up with new initiatives to celebrate Ganesh Festival. From a blood donation drive at Amar Heights on Aundh road to a strictly ecofriendly celebration at Lunkad Greenland-2, Vimannagar; the range of activities was all encompassing. The effort to go green and keep the city clean was clearly visible.
The ongoing 125th Ganeshotsav celebrations are indeed special throughout the city. While individuals are doing their best to make their beloved Bappa’s stay enjoyable and devotional, housing societies have come up with contemporary ideas to involve the youth and children. Thus, some societies gave special emphasis to spreading awareness on protecting the environment while others provided a platform for young performers to enhance their talents.
Here’s a glimpse of the Ganesh Festival activities at some of Pune’s housing societies:
Sky Lounge, Kalyaninagar: Imbibing culture in young minds
The residents of Sky Lounge, Kalyaninagar are usually gung-ho about bringing together members and celebrating every happy occasion. So, when it comes to their favourite deity, they tend to go the extra mile to offer the best. Speaking to Hindustan Times, Sachin Pawar from the cultural committee, said, “The idea is to have the entire society come together for special days. Ganeshotsav is definitely one such special time. Apart for daily aarti and prasad distribution, we organise several cultural programmes and donation drives. We recently had a clothes and footwear donation drive to benefit the poor, where the entire collection was distributed to a city NGO.”
Society members also believe in setting the right examples for the young ones. “We organised a fancy dress competition on the theme of mythology this year. Through this, we wanted to impart the knowledge of work done centuries ago without being preachy. We had young kids dressed as Ram, Sita, Hanuman and other revered personalities,” he added.
They also conduct activities like Antakshari, and ‘housie’ to keep every age group engrossed and engage maximum people to come together. “It is all about becoming a congenial environment.”
Roopa Dadiya, another member of the society, said, “Our society has implemented rain water harvesting, solar, wet waste processing and collection of plastic separately. We also conducted a clothes and footwear collection drive.”
Gagan Vihar, Kondhwa: One for the jawans
The bustling Gagan Vihar Co-operative Housing Society at Kondhwa turns into an even more energetic space during the Ganeshotsav. This 15-year-old society has always come up with unique ways of celebrating their favourite deity’s arrival. They have been winning awards for the ‘best decor’ and ‘ideal society’ for nine successive years. However, they have ceased from participating in the above competitions because the members believe others should stand a chance to win too.
Vinod Bogawat, committee member and chairman of the society, planned something very different for the members. “We had the members of Lakshya Foundation showcase a three-hour movie on the life and journey of Army jawans on the border. The film took us to their routine, training and ways of living. It was heartwarming to see what they go through, so that we can live peacefully in our homes,” he said.
Members were moved by the film and decided to make a donation of ₹11,000 to the Foundation. “Every year, we have several competitions for children and youth to participate and enjoy. This year too, they surprised us with skits on ill-effects of child labour and other topics,” he added.
The residents of Gagan Vihar do not immerse their idol in the river or tank every year. “We give it to volunteers who recycle and reuse the idol next year with minimum changes. This way we are doing our part in spreading awareness about an ecofriendly festival.
Lunkad Greenland-2, Vimannagar: ‘Cleanliness is my Birthright’
Believing in the principle that change should trickle down from the eldest to the youngest, residents of Lunkad Greenland-2 society in Vimannagar, decided to celebrate this year’s Ganeshotsav as a platform of awareness for the next generations.
Under the guidance of the housing society’s chairman, Col(Retd) Shashikant Dalvi, the young residents organised a cultural programme packed with dance, music and drama, to emphasise on important issues like pollution, water shortage, waste management, and the significance of being sensitive towards the environment and be a responsible citizen of Pune.
13-year-old Diya Singh, who loves to take part in such cultural events, exclaimed, “Through this programme, we brought up issues like water shortage, citizens’ involvement and waste management before the people. We presented a skit on Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, talking about the inception of Ganesh puja, and how it is not just a religious festival but also a unifying and welfare-driven festival.”
“This was followed by a song with modified lyrics to speak about waste management and the importance of water shortage and how we should save and harvest it. The dance performance, was mostly a fusion of modern and traditional forms,” she said.
Kuntal Desai, another young 12-year old resident studying in Lexicon International School, said, “We are the future of this country and our own city. We need to protect and cherish it, and that is what we were conveying through the programme.” Pointing out a specific detail about their performance, Singh added, “Inspired by the iconic quote of Tilak, ‘Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it’, in the skit we pledged, ‘Swachchata or cleanliness is my birthright and we will have it!”
Amar Heights, Aundh road: A blood donation camp for the welfare of others
The Amar Heights Ganesh Festival Mandal of Aundh road celebrated the Ganesh Chaturthi in a different way. The mandal organised a blood donation camp on August 26 and also sought to convince people to pledge to donate their organs after death. The camp was inaugurated by Vijay Kale, MLA and the blood donation drive was held in association with Ruby Hall Clinic.
About 50 people donated blood during the drive which also saw participation of residents of nearby societies.
Besides this, the mandal also undertook drawing and dancing competitions and raised awareness on the Beti Bachao Abhiyan.
Tejas Rokade ,a member of the mandal, said, “We have been successful in convincing 50 people to donate blood. Like every year, we are celebrating the Ganesh Festival in a different way.’’ Another resident Rajat Kolkar said,“There are 65 members in our mandal. Earlier, our fathers were members of the mandal. Several innovative things are in the pipeline. Amar Heights co-operative housing society started celebrating the Ganesh Festival in 2010 with different themes every year.
(Compiled by Ananya Barua, Anjali Shetty and Shrinivas Deshpande)