Bal Gopal Mandal a journey
(1953 - 2015)
A sapling of celebration of our favorite god Shri Ganesh
started in 1953 with children; youths and contribution of elders grown up and
become a big tree with sweeten fruits in last 63 years. In Gokhale wadi and
premises this is one of the oldest functions celebrated yearly.
Once upon a time there were are three committees Snehwardhak
Mandal for men; Sharda Mandal for women and ‘Bal Gopal Mandal’ for children. First
year Ganesh idol set up in the house of Mr. Kusurkar. As the time passed, the
members from other two committees started to join ‘Bal Gopal Mandal’. In this
journey, many people contributed their experiences, values & culture. Many
people have left us in this journey, but still the previous practice of tradition
they had build previously are not only followed by today’s generation but are
also valuing them and celebrating 63 years of the committee.
During the previous years, some of the elder persons used
to bring bamboo and tarpaulin through bullock cart. In those days, the pandal
used to build by the committee members. During those days, moral education
class was not in practice, but children used to dwells the prayers, and this
social and cultural values were on the board due to many practices of this
mandal. Men and women used to play skit on the social topics. The very
intresting part of this was people used to bring mat from their home as it was
rainy season. Even many senior people used to orate the phrases of
‘Bhagvatgita’.
As there was the tradition of cultural programs, residence
from the locality and other areas used to perform dance, singing and fancy
dress event. Along with that, professional film, plays, mimicry and songs were
also used to perform. Also, people enjoyed many plays of Mr. Jagdish Khebudkar
and the films like paying guest, hamraj, gumnam, nilkamal, jab jab phool khile,
songadya were shown to the audience. these programs were favourable to all age
group. While the residence of the locality and outside people will not occur
any problem, is being taken care of.
All the age group people willingly used to come together
for decoration activity during the night time. Even the decoration which was
completed in one night were also seemingly beautiful. Many different concept of
decorations were presented by various generation of people. And the very
attractive part of the decoration were the idol of Ganpati which furnished the
whole artistic decoration. Although the members changed but the beauty of the
idol remains same through the years.
During the 25 years of ‘Bal Gopal Mandal’, special efforts
have been taken to innovate the ideas regarding the decoration, daily worship,
etc. Even, the practice of procession was started during that year for the
welcoming of the Ganpati. Men and women, childrens actively participate in the
procession.
During this period, redevelopment of the chawl took place.
In this difficult times, the ganpati which were celebrated within the corridors
of the household were made open to the public. Childrens were grown up and had
to go out of town for the purpose of job. But the love and dedication of the
people on this committee remained the same. Transformation of chawl to the
building took place and new residents started to reside here. The love of the old
residents and the support of new ones bought ‘Bal Gopal Mandal’ on a new
platform.
The time passed away and we reached the 50th
year. At that year, the idol was alike Tirupati Balaji and the decoration were
like the temple. At that 50th year, ‘Bal Gopal Mandal’ had the idea
of ‘Ganeshyag’ and started preparing pre-planning of the ceremony. With this
ceremony, the women had the idea of ‘Sahastravardhan’ (1000 times recite of
ganpati prayer) and the total of 35 women participated which took place from
9:00 am till 7:00 pm and was completed elegantly. In this ceremony, 50 dough
diyas were placed in the shape of number 50 and the aarti was performed in the
honour of lord Ganesha. These memories are so fresh in the minds of the people.
The senior members of the committee were always with us and so the teachings of
the people who left us in this journey remained with us.
The festival is celebrated in the same forever as it was
celebrated during 60th year….
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