BPOwallas, graduates too soaked in Govinda flavour

Ambarish Mishra / TNN / Aug 19, 2008, 05:52 IST

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Graduates and BPOwallas are fast emerging as the Big Boys of govinda, or so it seems...

BPOwallas, graduates too soaked in Govinda flavour

MUMBAI: Graduates and BPOwallas are fast emerging as the Big Boys of govinda, or so it seems. Janmashtami, when the govinda gaggle is out on the mean streets of Mumbai to be drenched in milk and curd, is scheduled for August 24.
"' Govinda' is a Gen.Now event and many of our young volunteers who are doing their post-graduation or are into software and BPO are giving the festival a new look,'' said Prakash Patil of a suburban Janmashtami group.
Take the case of Sagar Tade. The 20-something youth from Mazgaon is a commerce graduate from a prestigious south Mumbai college. Tade has earned a job in the banking sector. "The pocketborough where I grew up sizzles with the govinda fever every year. It is impossible to resist the call of 'aala re... ','' he added.
Ditto with Swapnil Gosavi. "All my friends are out on the ground every evening to practice the human pyramid. Govinda has nothing to do with education. Even if I had done my post-graduation from Yale University, I would love to dance to the 'dholak' beat every year,'' laughed Gosavi who is doing a course in aviation. The commerce graduate from Devi Pada, in Borivli, rubs shoulders with school dropouts and cable operators as they slug it out on a slushy maidan.

In Girgaum, Rahul Patange has plans to goad Wizzcraft into sponsoring his 80-year-old 'mandal' in Mangal Wadi. "We have to inject glamour, pace and style into govinda. The new generation is doing this with gusto,'' said Patange whose fluency in English earns him admiring glances from his 'Mee-Marathi ' friends.
After a gruelling 10-hour schedule in a Malad call centre, Shankar Garud, 21, has all the energy to go through the paces at a govinda ground, a Bisleri bottle tucked neatly into his bag. "My call centre colleagues who are not from Mumbai are eager to see me doing the pyramid,'' said Garud.

According to Nitesh Pawar, a computer science graduate from Ruia college, the concept of govinda blurs social distinctions. "It's nice to see graduates and geeks carrying the weight of auto-rickshaw drivers and courier employees on their shoulders,'' said Pawar who works in a Dalal Street firm.
ambarish.mishra@timesgroup .com

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