I still visit some of the festive locations every year just for one simple reason – nostalgia Although gone are the days when I used to cover the Dahi Handi festival on the ground. Yes, Dahi Handi makes me nostalgic. As a true blue Mumbaikar I have grown up watching and participating in this festival. Later on, when I became a TV journalist, I covered this celebration year after year. I have seen the transformation of this festival over the decades. From the modest matkis hung in the middle of streets at moderate heights, broken by local Govinda pathaks, the celebration is now enveloped in glamour and commercialisation.
Awhad was the first one to organise a fashion show below the Dahi Handi in Pachpakhadi Thane. He also invited Spanish Castellers to Thane who celebrated a similar festival of forming human towers in Catalonia. Students of a business school attended his event to see the practical application of the concepts like goal-setting, team-building, risk management and so on. Sarnaik was instrumental in giving a professional structure to the festival. Aher gathered Bollywood celebrities at Jambori Maidan in Worli and Ram Kadam infused big cash into the festival in the form of rewards to participants of tall human pyramids.
