Risking lives for lucre

When fest turns into a cash bash

Come Gokulashtami, most streets of Mumbai and many parts of Maharashtra come alive as the modern day reprise of the ancient mythological cameo of Krishna stealing curd is played out.

In each street, a large crowd witnesses a group of men, called “Govindas” after
Krishna, form human pyramids for one of them to try and climb a slippery pole to break the ‘dahi handis’ (curd pots) tied on top, which contain not so much as curd as wads of money. Year after year, Dahi Handi contest is going literally higher. The prize money has inched from double digits four decades ago close to eight-figure mark now. This year, highest prize money offered was a whopping Rs 75 lakh.

With politicians of all hues jumping into fray, the cash prize money is getting bigger. The event, which is celebrated to mark the birthday of Lord Krishna, is becoming a multi-crore festival in Mumbai. The greater the prize money, the task gets tougher for the Govindas as they have to scale high and form bigger pyramids to reach the dahi handi. The flip side of it is that more get injured in the bid to win the very attractive prize money.

The event is held on Gokulashtami, or the eighth day of the Shravan Krishna
Paksha. According to Mahabharata, when Krishna was born to Devaki and Vasudeva, the couple were held captive in a dungeon of Mathura by Kansa, the demon king. Suddenly the doors of the prison opened, and Vasudeva could take the new-born out in a cane basket under heavy downpour and safely put him in the loving care of Yashoda and Nanda of Gokula.

Krishna, according to mythology played many roles - of a statesman, a diplomat, a wrestler, a king and that of a philosopher, who revealed the Bhagwad Gita to his beloved disciple Arjuna on the battlefield. But one form that is very much remembered and celebrated by the people is that of Krishna as a boy, who would climb the pyramids erected by his friends to reach the mud pots and  break them to eat dahi and butter. This aspect has been celebrated in Mumbai with gusto from decades, when groups of young boys try to break a clay pot filled with butter or curd, tied to a rope as high as around 40 feet. At some point of time, in order to make the attempt lucrative, money was added to the pot. Youngsters form a pyramid to reach the handi and attempt to break it even as onlookers spray water jets to thwart their attempts.

But in the last few years, the stakes in cash and height of the pole have gone up and so also the number of mishaps. Many have suffered grievous injuries. The events have led to a heated debate on holding such events with high stake money.

Some of the biggest and most talked-about ‘dahi handis’ in Mumbai are now
organised by politicians, who try to take political mileage out of the event. This year, a legislator of Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party, Jitendra Avhad put up ‘Sangharsh’ dahi handi in adjoining Thane where the offer prize for anyone braking it was a staggering Rs 75 lakh. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena legislator Ram Kadam sponsored another Dahi Handi in Mumbai which offered the winner Rs 31 lakh.

Sankalp Pratisthan, headed by minister of state for housing Sachin Ahir, hiked its prize money to Rs 25 lakh from Rs 15 lakh last year. Shiv Sena legislator Pratap
Sarnaik offered Rs 65 lakh to the winner. Then the minority welfare minister Naseem Khan’s mandal announced a fancy Rs 7,77,777 for breaking the handi at Ghatkapor in central suburb.

Along with the huge prizes came towering heights of the dahi handis, which make it next to impossible for amateurs to even attempt. So, seasoned Govinda mandals, who needed to form nine or 10-tier pyramids to break most of the pots. The world record is in the name of Spaniards with a 10-tier human pyramid, created some years back.

This year, a new record was set at Thane’s Sanskriti Pratisthan by Tadwadi mandal of Mazgaon (Mumbai), which actually created a 10-tier pyramid. But even that did not help break the pot. The hundi had to be lowered to enable the Govindas to break it after creating an eight-tier pyramid. In fact, many Govinda mandals were successful in forming high pyramids this year to break dahi handis.

There was frenzy at Thane when Jai Jawan Mitra Mandal of Jogeshwar equalled its own record of nine tiers at the Sangharsh  Pratishthan dahi handi. The organiser Jitendra Avhad handed the boys the prize money in the presence of the Spanish castellers, who hold the world record for 10 tiers.

The Rs 75 lakh-prize money was the aggregate of all prizes Jitendra Awhad
offered. The Jai Jawan mandal actually took away only Rs 15 lakh as prize for
creating nine layers because the height of the dahi handi was lowered. Avhad had
offered Rs 25 lakh for a 10-layer human pyramid. The prize money was given to a 500-strong Jai Jawan mandal and the members received amounts ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 21,000. As many as 56 members were involved in nine-layered pyramid formation.

The mandals spend money from their pockets for training and dress and they will have to break at least three dahi handis of moderate prizes (from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh) to break even. The 15-member Spanish troupe had been specially flown in by Avhad to witness Dahi Handi and it won hearts with its agility while forming human pyramids at the venue.

Girls are not behind in these celebrations. There was a group of 170 female Govindas which went from place to place to break dahi handis, but not with much success. Most of the 1,200-odd Govinda mandals were content with a victory salute once they achieved the optimum six or seven layers.

Prakash Khopkar, who had participated in similar activities in his younger days,  recalled the dahi handis of 1960s and 1970s in  Girgaum, where he and his friends would break dahi handis by forming three-or four-layered pyramids for a paltry Rs 11.

In their efforts to reach the towering heights, 273 Govindas were injured, two of them critically. In all, 40 Govindas were admitted to various hospitals in Mumbai, while others were discharged after initial treatment. Two participants, Dattatray Salunkhe and Deepak More, were seriously injured. One of them had his skull broken and is on ventilator, while another has suffered internal bleeding.

In a similar incident two years ago, a participant, Dayanand Badwarkar suffered paralysis and is yet to recover. He was on the ground level of the pyramid, which collapsed and some of his colleagues fell over him. But such mishaps are not preventing the organisers to raise the height of dahi handis, as was witnessed this year too.