The dhol-taasha brigades face a fluctuating situation, with a booming first day business and a lull thereafter. They are now pinning their hopes on the visarjan

When the invitation by five mandals was cancelled in one go Satyajit Shinde prepared himself for the swine flu effect on Shiv Garjana, his dhol-taasha group that has been playing for different mandals across the city for 10 years. The first day when the group played for 150 mandals they thanked the Lord and braced themselves for the good. But with Reeda Shaikh's school mate's death the fear hit again and so did the number of cancellations. They did hit a high in between the third and the seventh day. But as invitations start pouring in for anant chaturdeshi the cymbals jingle and the dhols roar once again.

Compared to last year's three invitations this year's four make Shiv Garjana score an extra Mandal this year despite the flu scare. "Guruji Talim, Sahyadri Mitra Mandal, Azad Hind and Mandai are the four mandals we will be playing for this visarjan. This year many refrain from crowded atmosphere due to obvious reasons. On the first day of Ganapati, the flu scare was less because deaths came to a halt but the moment two more deaths were reported the scare gripped the people again," Shinde says.

The much-loved girls' dhol brigade of JPP too agrees to the fluctuating status of dhol taasha groups. While many sections have experienced losses during Ganeshotsav our section hasn't because we are an inextricable part of processions. Like Ganapati idol sales remained intact despite the scare, so is our business," says secretary of the JPP youth wing.

... contd.