YUVA MANCH
The Youth Forum was the brain child of Mr. Suhas Kothare, the then editor of Prabhu Tarun and was launched in the year 1995. Yuva Manch takes pride in being the first forum started exclusively for the youth of our community to develop a sense of belonging towards the community and interact with fellow youngsters from the community. There was a time our community was close knit when Pathare Prabhus used to reside predominantly in prominent areas of Girgaon and Khar which enabled them to interact with each other on daily basis due to which they developed a sense of belonging to the community and considered the community as one big family. With the passage of time, our people spread all over Mumbai, India and abroad thereby creating a distance amongst the community members and relatives. Since most of the people have settled abroad or are away from the social circle of the community, there is no awareness amongst such families about our community and its people. The situation has worsened to such an extent that most of the children belonging to such families do not even know that they belong to a community called ‘Pathare Prabhu’. Worse still, they are unaware of even their relations, our language, culture and traditions which has made them distance away from their roots.
Despite of being the offspring of Prabhu Tarun, Yuva Manch gained popularity immediately on its inception. Yuva Manch was specifically launched by Suhas Kothare to give a separate wing to the already existing platform for amateur talent in our community. Suhas Kothare was known to encourage the amateur talent of the youth of our community by giving them a platform of their own to exhibit their talent and to provide a common ground for the youngsters to interact with each other. It also offered the youngsters to come together for a cause – that of preserving our community heritage, culture and traditions by interacting with the fellow community members socially.
Yuva Manch had a strong backing of Prabhu Tarun being its parent organization which enabled the youth forum to organize events under the reputed banner of Prabhu Tarun. Yuva Manch was formed By Mr. Suhas Kothare with a bunch of youngsters who were actively involved in the cultural activities at that time and Dr. Gajanan Vijayakar was made the President of Yuva Manch. The founder members included Deepak Kothare, Sanjana Kothare, Aloke Pradhan, Aishaana Pradhan, Dr. Pavan Kirtikar, Ashwini Kothare, Asit Talpade, Sameer Talpade, Amit Kothare, Meeta Vyavaharkar etc. who happened to be a part of the memorable and popular play organized by Prabhu Tarun ‘Lagnachi Bedi’.
Thereafter the activities of Yuva Manch gained momentum with the involvement of enthusiastic members like Mayura Vijayakar now Mayura Nayak, Janhavi Vijayakar now Janhavi Kirtikar, Gunjarav Nayak, Anuradha Vijayakar, now Anushry Kothare, Jitesh Talpade, Shrinal Kothare, Yogesh Rao, Tarang Vijayakar, Dr.Ambrish Vijayakar, Shailendra Talpade, Shreya Nayak now Shreya Talpade etc. This group of youngsters who were full of zest tried to bring the youngsters of our community together to keep up with the purpose of starting this Forum. Picnics and Parties were organized by the key members to get the youngsters interested in the Forum.
A Double wicket tournament was also organized at Shivaji Park under the Prabhu Tarun Yuva Manch banner which was open to all age groups. The tournament was huge success with the participation of elders like Dr. Praful Vijayakar, Dr. Pradip Vijayakar, Mr. Mahesh Kothare to name a few. Various other events organized under the Prabhu Tarun banner had the Yuva Manch youngsters participating with great gusto from 1995 to 1998.
The activities of Yuva Manch lost its momentum with the demise of Mr Suhas Kothare in 1998. Yuva Manch lost its father figure however Mr. Vihang Nayak who had taken over as the editor of Prabhu Tarun organized a seminar and a Fun n Fair with the active participation of Yuva Manch members in the year January 1999. Incidentally that function was the last function organized by that team of enthusiastic youngsters. However Mr. Nayak did keep the spirit of Yuva Manch alive by commemorating the birth anniversary of Mr. Suhas Kothare by naming it ‘Yuva Din’. ‘Yuva Din’ was celebrated by the Yuva Manch members in the memory of its founder on 24th November for 5 years after the demise of Mr. Suhas Kothare.
With the passage of time, the members of Yuva Manch got busy in their careers and the marital responsibilities thereby restricting their active participation in organizing events under the banner of Prabhu Tarun Yuva Manch. After a long spell of dormancy, Yuva Manch sprung back in action with a few people from the same old group of members. Holding hands towards a common goal got the like minded members thinking about rejuvenating Yuva Manch.
In the year 2009, Mayura Nayak and Sanjana Kothare who had been newly elected as Co-editors of Prabhu Tarun along with Gunjarav Nayak and Deepak Kothare the newly appointed Trustees of Prabhu Tarun thought of reviving Yuva Manch for the benefit of the next generation of Pathare Prabhus. They along with their old friends like Janhavi Vijayakar-Kirtikar and Nishad Dhurandhar thought of forming a committee for Yuva Manch.
Accordingly, the committee members were Deepak Kothare, Sanjana Kothare, Gunjarav Nayak, Mayura Nayak, Nishad Dhurandhar, Adinath Kothare, Vaijayanti Kirtikar, Janhavi Kirtikar, Mithil Navalkar, Kashmira Ajinkya, Shreya Talpade and Shailendra Talpade. Due to the working schedules or educational commitments some genuinely interested people could not be a part of the committee although they expressed their willingness to be a part of Yuva Manch. The present committee of 12 members chalked out a list of activities to be held throughout the year. Activities included reserving a space in the form of one page in the news letter named ‘Yuva Manch’ especially for youngsters to voice their opinion. The Yuva Manch committee thought of having an own identity for which a logo was to be decided. The concept of having a Yuva Manch Logo competition was suggested by Ms. Vaijayanti Kirtikar and accordingly a contest was held for which entries were invited by announcing about the competition in Prabhu Tarun. Out of the few entries that were received Ms. Namrata Rao won the first price for the logo.
Having formed the basic objective of contributing in a large way through social service for the members of the community Yuva Manch took its first step in keeping in mind the objectives set by them. A sensational break through was made by the Yuva Manch committee by launching the PRABHU TARUN WEB SITE in the year 2009.
As per the objectives, Yuva Manch announced their first Cultural event of the season ‘Pratyush ’09 – A new rising, on 6th June 2009 at Rang Sharada, Bandra, with an over whelming response from the younger generation who were interested in participating. Pratyush had a number of around 70 participants and a team of professionals to make the event a huge success. The event included a tribute to Mr. Vihang Nayak, the ex-editor of Prabhu Tarun besides a skit woven around the various performances like, dance performances, singing and a unique concept of having a Parbhi fashion show designed and conceptualized by Mrs. Akanksha Vijayakar nee Ms.Dipti Dhairyawan. Dances were choreographed by a noted professional choreographer, Mr. Vishwas Natekar and the Direction of the show was done by Mrs. Pooja Ajinkya. The technical support was generously offered by Mohnish Shete. The event also show-cased the launch of our Prabhu Tarun web site and the re-launch of Yuva Manch.
Inorder to keep up the zest of the participation of youngsters, the Yuva Manch committee decided to have pre event get-togethers so as to encourage participation of youngsters and also post event parties to celebrate and appreciate the participation of the participants as well as the supporters for the event. The parties organized by Prabhu Tarun Yuva Manch in association with its parent body Prabhu Tarun has always been keeping in mind the interest of the younger generation and with the hope that they maintain their relation with the community and develop a sense of belonging with the Pathare Prabhu clan.
Pratyush was successfully organized for three consecutive years upto 2011 with the support and participation of many more additional enthusiasts like Bhakti Pradhan Shete, Capt. Ashwin Pradhan, Mohnish Shete etc. Mr. Satish Joshi, helped us with the Direction of the play during Pratyush ‘10 while Mr. Sanjoo Talpade directed the play for Pratyush ‘11. Mr. Vishwas Natekar has been the consistent Choreographer for Pratyush while Mohnish Shete became our in-house Technical support and has been of the Pathare Prabhu family ever since.
Although Yuva Manch has not conducted any activity since 2011, Prabhu Tarun has maintained its essence and has moved its Yuva Manch activities to Prabhu Tarun Digital activities which will be continued online as well as offline under its parent body, ‘Prabhu Tarun’.
- Sanjana Kothare
