Colonytlaa Ganpati

Amit (aalyaa aalyaa) to Rahul: Are te papya sunya kaay zopaa kaadhtaayt kaa gharaat, bolaw tyaanna, [Call papu sunil --- are they sleeping in the house]

Me: Are tu sunya paatyaa anaylaa gelaay.....(Sunya is fetching the gravel containers)

(Tevdyaat) Papu :are aaalo aalo, malaa shaaletlyaa maitrinichaa phone aala hota [(aata to kadhi yet nahi te saang :) ) [Excuse me , my girl friend called]

Amit : Are naamya , wartee kaay paapad waalat ghaaltoy kaa... chal lawkar ... khadde khodaaylaaa..........[come down pravin and dig up some holes]

Pravin: Ho, aalo , thaamb......... [coming]

in the mean while : a high pitched noise keeps on BUNK.........BUNK.........BUNK.........BUNK.........BUNK......... (Rupyaacha single handedly Khadde khodna chalu aahe..........)[Rupesh doing the honours of digging all by himself]

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This was a typical scene from our colony every year sometime in august-september 10 days before the start of Ganpati festival...............Initiated by Amit Me Pravin Pranav Abhu and Rupesh in our 5th Grade it remains the longest standing tradition and celebration in our colony where we managed to bring people from all families, religions , sexes and ages together.......

Even today I recall those days as kids where we put our studies [ to the great dismay of our parents] , sports, TV, etc on the back burner and dedicated wholesome time to make the event a good success. What started as an aspiration of 6 kids blossomed over a period of 15 years as a major celebration. The main challenge as i remember was the decoration to be put up each time: Over the years we managed to create mountains, himalayas, flowing rivers, fountains, replica of a famous Krishna temple ( which was offered a good buy out price by an local architect) in the 10'x 7' space we had.

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There are so many memories associated with those celebrations that I will be barely touching the ocean surface with my list.

Guys you can list ur memorable ones in ur comments - let me begin here:

1)Guarding the Maandav (canopy structure) and idol by taking turns & sleeping in that basement ( always wondering whether rupyaa had tied the knots properly)

2)Wiwidha Gunadarshan ( Talent show)

3) Fancy dress competition where the 1 hr scheduled prog went on for 3 hours coz of excess people turning up

4)Womans cricket

5)Kaun Banel shatakweer? (Who wants to earn a 100 bucks)

6)Shewatchya diwshi Lokhande kakancha satkaar lights dilyaa baddal (felicitating Lokhande uncle for generously letting us use the power)

7)That stupid singer we invited who went on singing "PARDESIYA......"

8)And how can we forget prashant saying "Mazya haatat mike maazezh aik"

(i cant translate that :)..... its prashants patent ;)

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