Mangaluru: Krishna Janmaastami brings along gaiety, fun and frolic, especially around the ‘Mosaru Kudike’ events. Every lane in Mangaluru now a days hosts a ‘Mosaru Kudike’ event where young men form the castell or human pyramids to reach to the earthen pots hanging high above them.
To the beats of latest movie songs and with the people cheering for them, the youth get into some frenzied mood and start staging the daredevilry shows, which is often not called for, converting the Mosaru Kudige event into some kind of show of masculinity.
There are falls and then there are hits, but in this game of fall and rise, what often goes unseen are the series of severe injuries that happen every year.
Though the Supreme Court of India capped the height of Human pyramid at 20 feet recently, a stroll to the hospitals on the day after Janmastami confirms the fact that Mosaru Kudike is not all that fun as it seems to be and further that 20 ft ceiling has not been followed by any organiser in the city.
As per locals who take rounds of the city during the event, at least three get injured on an average in every event and considering the fact that there are at least 100 venues where Mosaru Kudige is organised in Mangaluru, the number of injuries conveniently runs into 300.
Mohan Kulal, is a young man who takes pride in being part of the events every year. With a plastered nose, Mohan could hardly breath, but he says, the injuries simply do not matter.
“I have been doing this every since I was 16. Injuries keep happening, but that does not fizz out the spirit,” says Mohan who has injured his nose while breaking the pot with a head stroke. He says expressing pain can bog down the team and hence enduring it all to put up a good show is a must. “It is not for the weak,” he says.
Meanwhile, Dinesh Amin, a youth from Kodical has been rendered immobile for next few weeks owing to leg injury.
“It was a fall from the top of the human pyramid,” he says with a laugh.
Like Mohan and Dinesh there are hundreds of boys who line up at the doctor’s clinic with broken nose, hands and legs, bruised mouth, swollen eyes and bruised body, the next day.
Breaking the pot with head stroke or with bare hands, performing stunts while forming the castell, clinging on to the wooden frame that holds the pots, jumping off the castell etc are some of the common scenes that can be seen at the Mosaru Kudige events. These are not needed but, the young men simply do it to grab attention of the crowd. But, at the same time, there are self-proclaimed Gurus, who lay down guidelines for the events and according to them breaking the pots with clubs or with any other equipment is barred. There are set of other guidelines which only makes ‘Mosaru Kudige’ a difficulty game.
Talking to newskarnataka.com, a doctor in Mangaluru said that the day after Janmastami is a busy day for him as there are several young boys who line up for treatment of both serious and not so serious injuries.
“Some come with bruises and injuries of various kinds and some come with swollen face and hands. There are many others who come to me because of the little granules of earthen pots that remain stuck between nails or inside eyes. Many also develop irritation of eyes and skin due to coloured water filled in the pots,” he says.
Since there are no guidelines in place to monitor these acts, the police who remain patrolling the areas have little to say.
One death in Urwa?
Though the news of a youth having died in Urwa areas after falling off human pyramid made rounds in the city on Thursday late night, the police refuted the same stating that the death had occurred on Wednesday when the youth was tying the pots to a pole. With no clarity on the same and with locals insisting that the youth had fallen off the castell, it appears to be unclear as to what was the idea behind the police not giving out clear picture.
However, whether the event has claimed lives across the country or not, police department and the state and central government must look critically at these events and bring in restrictions so that Mosaru Kudige events become fun and frolic in true sense.
