Mumbai's women Govindas headed for Mathura

Mumbai’s first all-women Govinda group was formed 15 years ago and since then they have been going places. After visiting Dwarka, Udipi, Gujarat and Jaipur in the last four years, the group is going to Mathura —the birthplace of Lord Krishna — this year to participate in the Dahi Handi during Janmashtami celebrations between August 20 and 24.

For the past one month, 300 women from the Goraknath Mahila Govinda Mandal have been practicing for the Dahi Handi. The women come together at the Kedarnath hall in Kurla every evening to practice.

The women in the group are between age of 10 to 70 years. Shalaka Koregaonkar, president of the mandal, said: “We are the first all-women Govinda group in the city. Since the last four years we have been invited by other states to participate in Dahi Handi. We keep away from the competition because we want to enjoy the festival. We have not set up this mandal to collect money. We just want to preserve our culture.”

The group makes a five-tier human pyramid. “We can form taller pyramids but we avoid doing so as a precaution. We don’t want somebody getting injured while celebrating Dahi Handi,” she added.

The mandal has a special trainer who trains the girls on how to form a human pyramid. The group also has a doctor on call in case of any accident during the festival. The office bearer of the mandal has already visited Mathura to take care of the arrangements there.

The expenses for travelling to Mathura were taken care by local donations and the rest of the expenses are being borne by the organisation that invited them to Mathura.