Dhols and eco-friendly decor mark the campus Ganpati celebrations

With pomp, gaiety and grandeur, the city of Pune is soaked in the festivity of Ganeshtosav celebrations. People have welcomed Bappa to their homes and hearts and the grand pandals too which are crowded with celebrants. While the festivity has gripped us all, how can city colleges stay behind in the celebration? On this edition of What’s Up, Campus? we bring to you how students are actively participating in the college Ganesha celebrations.From bonding over activities to planning and coordinating, students are enjoying on-campus festivity...

Dhol-tasha, colours and bonding, Pune colleges are gripped in the fervour of Ganeshotsav and What’s Up, Campus? bring to you the celebration which is special for the students. For some, it the first experience of Ganeshotsav in Pune while for others students feel like home...


“Coming from outside Pune, this is my first Ganpati celebration. It is just as exciting, vibrant and full of energy as Durga Puja back home,” shares Trishani Paul, a second-year student at Ajeenkya DY Patil University-School of Film and Media which celebrated the festival for five days and also invited dhol-tasha to which students let their hair down along with the staff. “The students got together to do all the decorations and preparations. Many students were seen making friends including me! I became friends with this great girl in the first year while doing the sthapana (installation),” she adds.


For college Chasa Academy IDT, the festival was a chance for all the three streams of interior design, fashion design and event management to come together. Last year the sthapana and aarti had been done by four Muslim girls, which gave a message of love and unity. “All the students participated in the decorations. Each department had a certain task to pull off. In fact, as our tradition goes, we are getting children to come to the college and play dhol tasha on the visarjan day,” informs student Amita Arun Nikalje. “The fashion students designed a Maratha saree which we have displayed on a mannequin beside the Shaniwar Wada themed Ganapati décor. Everything is eco-friendly including the Ganesh idol. The students used brick and mud to make the wada which was selected as it is of significance to the city. We used sticks to give the stones some detailing and a real look, while chocolate balls were put around the door of the wada,” says a student Nikhil Shah.


The festival often becomes emotional for students who are in the city for studies and miss out on celebrations back home. However, the campus Ganpati has helped them become a part of a new family. One such student is Ayushmaan Sahu, a marketing student at PIBM, “On the auspicious day of Ganeshtotsav, students of the Pune Institute of Business Management, brought Lord Ganesha to our institute for the 10-day celebration. We welcomed the lord with dhol-tasha and danced and did splendid virajman of Bappa and performed the aarti. Being away from home, it is the first celebration on our campus and we could have asked for nothing better.”


As everybody knows, the most favourite part of a puja is the prasad which is also the case at Savitribai Phule Pune University. “Though decorations were kept simple, the celebration was a grand success with staff and students coming for the aarti twice daily. The prasad was handmade by the students daily which made the puja more special than it already was,” quips Aishwarya Bhanage. The campus celebrations have been full of dancing to the beats of dhols, and are eagerly awaited by most colleges who conducted visarjan after five days on Monday afternoon.