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Mumbai Navratri innovates despite court respite
Indo-Asian News Service

Mumbai, Oct 4 (IANS) Never mind the Supreme Court relaxing the ban on loudspeakers, Navratri groups across the city are going ahead with innovations like headphones for dancers and party zones outside city limits that had been planned to bypass the law. 

Headphones, speed-dating, early bird prizes and auto exhibitions. Apprehensive about the festive spirit being dampened by the ban on use of loudspeakers between 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., organisers devised novel ways to woo revellers.

And Navratri groups, or mandals as they are known, will continue with their plans for the nine-day festival that began Tuesday.

The Supreme Court Monday confirmed the right of the state government to extend the deadline for turning off loudspeakers by two hours for 15 days, a year after the Gujarat government appealed against the decision.

The revelry at Navratri begins in the evening and goes on till late at night with the old and young getting together to dance the garba or dandiya in parks and specially organised events.

"We give something unique to revellers every year. For the past three years, we have been organising an auto-show along with the dandiya," said Daarshana Vora of Sankalp, one of the biggest dandiya organisers in the city whose shows attract about 12,000 people a day.

To keep noise levels low after the deadline, many mandals were ready with headphones for the dancers - though at a premium. 

Many shifted the venue to far flung locales to stay away from the city's noise limits.

Nikhil Shah, one of the most sought after dandiya performers, for instance, decided to shift his party to Esselworld, an amusement park in the northern outskirts of the city.

Shah, who has been organising dandiya nights for 25 years, probably wanted to add that extra thrill. Visitors needs to cross the Gorai creek on a ferry from Borivili to reach Esselworld.

"As Esselworld falls in the entertainment zone and has no noise level problems, we expect people to throng our dandiya," Shah said.

There are some 3,500 registered navratri mandals in the city who charge anywhere between Rs.150 to Rs.1,600 for the tickets.