FROM TEARS TO TRIUMPH & THE WAY FORWARD……July 2009

The feeling of triumph has still not faded. That aroma of success still lingers around. Yes, YUVA MANCH is still basking in the glory of Pratyush’09! It has been almost a month since the event got over, but even today when any of us talk, we only talk of Pratyush. In fact, we talk almost every alternate day! What started as a journey of a handful of ‘yuvas’ who wanted to transform the mindsets of young PPs, slowly became a revolution with almost 70 odd youths joining hands in this venture! Success of Pratyush’09 is attributed to the hardwork of all these 70 odd young souls who sweated out everyday for more than a month to make Pratyush’09 what it is! Undoubtedly I hold no qualms in proudly stating that Pratyush’09 will go down in the history of Pathare Prabhu Community, as one of the most remarkable events that ever happened. I hope it is also remembered as A NEW RISING as the name “Pratyush” suggests a new beginning of young leaders, working for the community. From the response that we have got from our young PPs after this show, I can confidently say that our community will see many more young leaders in the years to come, and I think this is the greatest achievement of Pratyush’09.

Pratyush was our stage to talk to all the youngsters of our community. Barriers were many! Unfazed by these barriers we still walked confidently on this path sorting out issues, solving each others’ problems, helping each other, listening to each other. Many a times all we needed was to vent out our stress, we became each others’ stress busters! Sometimes everything would go perfectly well, and the very next moment the mountain of problems would collapse on all of us and suddenly a feeling of suffocation under the debris of problems would settle in. We witnessed all emotions, if on one side we were facing helplessness, anger, frustration, impatience, arrogance, on the other side, we also cherished all our special moments of joy, fun, togetherness, and somewhere a gut feeling of victory was always nudging us to push the envelope further! We learnt many lessons, and of course we taught some too! We learnt the power of team work, we as a team faced each problem together and that was our biggest strength.

At times we had to mask our troubles with a big broad smile to welcome all our friends’ everyday who were working so hard for the event. 70 people, with 70 different views, it was a tough job to manage each of them. Some had problems with rehearsal timings, some with the snacks, and some with the casting of dancers in the various performances and some THANKFULLY HAD NO PROBLEMS AT ALL!!!! This was a blessing for us. I take this opportunity to thank all those dancers who never fussed about anything and cooperated with us throughout the last few months!! A special mention to all the kids dancing for us and their parents is inevitable. The most cooperative of the lot were the kids, though a tad too noisy at times, but they never caused hindrance or any sort of issues for us or anyone. All those who had no problems with us, I’m sure if you are reading you would know whom I’m talking about! YOU were our biggest driving force. Whenever we felt we are sailing in a sinking ship, we would look at your smiling faces and bounce back! Not to forget our senior members of the board, your frequent visits at the rehearsal hall were very reassuring and always strengthened our belief that we were on the right path.

We have some great memories attached to the show. Those quick dinners at Pizza Hut or Zaika, discussing the way forward, small conversations between all the dancers, Vishwas Sir’s funny one liners and his way of addressing some of the dancers, he had specific names for almost everyone. Some which I distinctly remember are ‘Akka’, ‘annappa’ , ‘shyamchi aie’, ‘Kazwa’, ‘jadeja’, ‘paattal’, ‘jaadu’, ‘taayde’, ‘atya’, it was his way of gelling in the group and he did it so well that no one ever had a problem with the names he had kept for them. I can go on about Vishwas Sir, as he was the best thing to have happened to Pratyush. His dedication and grit in making all of us dance paid off so well. Prabhu Tarun and Yuva Manch will always be grateful to him for his contribution to Pratyush’09. Of course I can’t miss out Pooja Ajinkya (sapna tai as we fondly called her) and Amar Ajinkya (we are yet to figure out if we should call him Amar dada, or Amar Bhauji or just Amar). They both have been instrumental in putting the whole show together from direction, costumes, light, sound, script, etc. the list is too long! We had some great moments with them too! Well as I write this editorial I’m realizing that Pratyush is so fresh in my mind and I’m sure it must be as fresh in everyone’s minds that have seen it. One of our committee members had a popular dialogue perpetually stuck with him which would make all of us laugh in the most difficult times. If any one of us, spoke of any problem in front of him he would very cheerfully say “tension nahi lene ka, everything will be fine” – Mithil this is for you, thanks for those cheerful moments!! These are all the moments we will cherish as golden memories throughout our lives! Well now the other committee members please don’t expect me to make a special personal mention of each of you, after this, as you all know there is not much space! But nevertheless, three cheers to the Yuva Manch Committee! Well I think I’m digressing from my topic. The point that I’m driving home is that, all we wanted was Yuva Manch back in business, and as you all can see, it is indeed back, full of enthusiasm, zest, and fervour! The working committee of yuva manch has in fact doubled in number after the show!

At the beginning of the year Yuva Manch had organized a party where a calendar of events was announced. Now is the time to take on all the events chalked down in the calendar. One of the most important jobs on hand is to maintain the Prabhu Tarun website which is now open for registration. Now every PP can register on this site and use a login password to access the newsletter online. There is a nominal one time registration fee of Rs.1000/- for the same. Our immediate task will be to maintain and ensure smooth functioning of this website. We will keep adding new features and interactive links to make this site more appealing to a larger audience within the community. This website again will not just give a worldwide access to Prabhu Tarun, but we plan to load it with a lot of interesting stuff. There is a blog being organized on this website, where all of us can write freely and interact with each other on various topics. We also plan to create a typical PP space on it, which will showcase everything typical to a PP. Right from our clothing, food, festivals, the works! For all the entrepreneurs there is good news for you, as you all can buy a link on this website to your own website. You can also buy space to advertise or sponsor any particular page on the website. Of course we are still at a very nascent stage of getting everything organized, but everyone will be regularly posted on the same. If any of you have a valuable suggestion on what you would like to see on it, we are all ears! Again, this is a great opportunity for all our NRI friends to find their roots and connect with the community through this website. If any of the NRI folks want us to touch upon any topics or offer any additional facilities on the website, please do let us know.

Apart from the website, we are also currently managing the activity of guest editors writing for Prabhu Tarun in the Yuva Manch Section. This activity was stalled temporarily to accommodate advertising space for Pratyush, but we have revived it from this month onwards. Baba (Vihang Nayak) and Suhasini kaki had thought of this concept even before TOI launched guest editors for their publication. They both initiated this concept few years back and successfully completed a year with 24 guest editors. We thought of continuing the novel concept, but this time only for the Yuva Manch section. And we were overwhelmed with the response we got for the same. Thanks to the success of the first project handled by baba and suhasini kaki that our young guest editors were so receptive to this concept. As the website and guest editors for Yuva Manch section remain to be priority for us, Yuva Manch will continue the events planned in the calendar. We promise to deliver more than your expectations in every forthcoming project that we undertake.

Amongst all the entertainment, fun, infotainment and education that we have planned through our forthcoming events we have been off late brainstorming on doing some serious and meaningful work, some work that is for a good cause either specifically for the people of our community or may be for any lesser privileged section of people outside the community. Many thoughts were exchanged; many ideas are still floating in our minds. There are so many benevolent institutions within our community who are doing great work for our folks; therefore it is difficult to place us between these esteemed institutions. Pathare Prabhu Charities does a lot of work in the interest of education of a lesser privileged PP. In fact from what we understand, Charities is involved in monetary assistance in any area of requirements for our community for all the PPs who cannot afford the same. They have also initiated free medical camps for our people. Social Samaj and Mahila Samaj also I believe does a lot of work. We do not want to clash our projects with any of these institutions. We want to do something which is unique to us, and is an independent project in itself. As one of our senior members rightly advised, don’t give people what YOU want to give, but give them what THEY want from you. We are contemplating execution of some of the ideas. With so many minds thinking I’m sure we will come up with something different and significant. Of course getting so many minds to agree on one idea might take long, but I’m confident that there is surely scope for us to explore areas to contribute, and there will surely be that one cracker of an idea which will appeal to all of us undisputedly.

The execution of this cause will be our way of giving back to the society, the community which has given us our identity. I’m sure the way we doubled in number after Pratyush, we will grow manifolds with each new venture we undertake. We welcome one and all to be a part of this revolution. There are no criteria or terms which you need to fulfil to be a part of this fast growing group of enthusiasts. All you need is great time management; because that is probably the only reason we get from people who do not want to join us. Of course great time management will help you make yourself available for the duties of the committee, but it needs to be coupled with other qualities like basic willingness to work, working in a team, accountability of every job undertaken, acceptance of the basic working of the board, working without complaints and with no expectations of returns. Yes, certain things we can guarantee you. Some returns like, some memorable joyous moments with a group full of like minded people, a sense of pride to have done something good for your community, perhaps you will get to do things which you have never done before in your professional or academic life, may be you discover a new side of YOU, not to forget the blessings of all our senior PPs who have always encouraged us to work for the community and above all and the most important is WE can guarantee you great friends for life! Let me tell you, you don’t get them so easily nowadays!!! Well our plans that I have mentioned above are just the tip of the ice – berg. Pratyush was just a beginning and there is a lot more to be done. Many more events, a lot more work to be accomplished! Thus I would like to end with a popular dialogue of a film, “Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost” so stay tuned in for more happenings, fasten your seatbelts and get ready for the roller coaster ride with YUVA MANCH!!