Mumbai groups attempt record at Hindu festival

Mumbai: Mumbaikars woke up to beating of drums on Janmashtami (Hindu festival) on Thursday as Govindas (pot-breaking groups) got together at their venues to strategise and form human pyramids to reach dahi handis — or pots of curd and luck — suspended high in the air.

With a huge prize money at stake, Govindas in Panchpakhadi area of Thane aimed to break the Spanish team's world record of a nine-layer pyramid, and planned to make a 10-tier pyramid for the dahi handi — a popular sport associated with Janmashtami, the birthday of the Hindu deity Krishna.

With rain playing hide and seek, preparations were affected on Thurrsday morning. "But then, the sun shone brightly and we breathed a sigh of relief," said Monu Patil, a Govinda, as the participant in the human pyramid making is called, from suburban Borivli.

With most Govinda groups still strategising their plan of action, a small group at Malabar Hill in south Mumbai became the first in Mumbai to break the handi.

"We aimed at celebrating the festival in a safe manner. We tried to keep the handi at a manageable level as we did not want to risk the lives of any of our Govindas," said a participant from the group.

The Govinda group from Dadar closely followed in breaking the handi. It had women Govindas too.

"We have been practising for two months for 3-4 hours every night to get used to the human pyramids," Patil said.

Several places offered a whopping prize money of Rs250,000 (around $5,300) for breaking the pot.

The celebrations were at their peak at Thane, Worli, Malabar Hill, Dadar and Borivli. Special festivities for children were also held on the occasion.

Already millions of rupees are riding on the Govindas.