A unique procession will be organized in the city on 24 October showcasing Malkhamb, Yoga, Lezim, and Lathi Kathi (an Indian Martial Art form).
PUNE: Capt. Shivrampant Damle established Maharashtriya Mandal in 1924 with a focus on empowering youth to embrace physical fitness and train them towards enlisting in the defense forces. This year, the Maharashtriya Mandal will begin its centenary year celebration on the auspicious occasion of Dussehra on 24 October 2023.
In the coming year, a number of events have been planned and the details of these were shared today at a Press Conference organized in the city. The conference was addressed by Air Marshal Bhushan Gokhale (Retd.) – President of Maharashtriya Mandal, in the presence of Avinash Ghatpande – Chairman of Maharashtriya Mandal, Rohan Damle – General Secretary of Maharashtriya Mandal and Neha Damle – Education Director of Maharashtriya Mandal. Maharashtriya Mandal’s new logo was also unveiled during the Press Conference.
What started as an institution focused on physical fitness and wellness has over the last 100 years expanded its vision to include the setting up of schools and colleges.
Speaking at the Press Conference, Air Marshal Bhushan Gokhale (Retd.) said, “India has a rich tradition of games like Malkhamb, Kabaddi, Kho-Kho and Yoga. Today there aren’t many options available for children to learn and play these games and for this, we at Maharashtriya Mandal are coming up with a Centre of Excellence. The Centre will focus on research for all these games along with providing the best in class coaching and state-of-the-art indoor facilities.”
Our aim is to achieve the status of a Sports University and we have begun our groundwork for the same. Along with the Centre of Excellence, we are also looking at creating a Sports Science Centre and a High-Performance Centre to work at producing international-level athletes. These centers will offer students guidance in nutrition, strength training, sports therapy, sports science, biomechanics, sports psychology, and so on. We will also be setting up a theoretical curriculum for these subjects for students to study. Currently, our institution offers a commerce degree. However, in the near future, we will look at providing a BBA degree too.” He added further.
Speaking about starting the 100th-year celebrations, Rohan Damle, General Secretary of Maharashtriya Madal said, “The centenary year celebration will begin with a unique procession on Tilak Road on 24 October (Dussehra) at 7.30 am. The procession will begin from our Tilak Road campus, go up to Abhinav Chowk, and conclude at our Mukund Nagar campus. The procession will include various demonstrations by our students on Malkhamb, Lezim, Yoga, and Lathi-Kathi. The other attraction during the procession will be the street play on de-addiction put together by our students. Along with the students, all teachers, and management members will participate in the procession. Apart from the procession, we are also excited about the event prior to it. At 5 am there will be a special program of ‘Zor’, an Indian-style dip and push-up. We have received 150+ registrations for this and there will be a special award for the one who performs 1000 non-stop push-ups.”
“As a part of the centenary year celebration, we will be undertaking several activities. They include national and international symposiums on the Indian traditional games and a grand conference on Yoga. In addition, grandiose demonstrations of the conventional games of Asia are being planned, wherein troops hailing from different Asian countries will present the same. Re-connecting with the original objective of the institution, we are also looking at developing a system to train our youth for defense enlistments.” He further added.
