The Keshavji Naik Chawls at Girgaum, where the Sarvajanik Ganpati celebrations began in 1893, simply refuse to end their romance with tradition. At these chawls, unlike in other parts of the city, even youngsters shun the song and dance of shimmering Venuses and Adonises on the streets, and instead, embrace traditional modes of worship. ``The idol is brought to our chawls in a palkhi which was made in 1935,'' said mandal president, Vinay Rahatekar. ``The aagamana procession, during which all chawl residents walk barefoot, takes place to the tune of tasha and lezim.

When the palkhi reaches the chawls' entrance, the Lord is welcomed by womenfolk dressed in traditional Marathi attire. Fifty women stand on either side of the entrance to perform the pancharati, and then the idol is installed andconsecrated.''

The programmes organised by the mandal over the next ten days, too, keep it from becoming an accredited member of the modern festival marketplace. ``Religious pravachanas are held on the Vedas, Upanishads, and the Bhaktisutras. Then there are kirtans (religious songs) based on stories from Puranas, the mantrajagara, recitation of Vedic and religious verses, and the sahastravartanas, verses glorifying Lord Ganesh, on all ten days,'' informed Rahatekar.

The mandal, though, doesn't just make for a calcified relic of a spiritual past, but also addresses itself to the problems of the day. ``For the last five years, a lecture series called Lokmanya Vyakhyanmala has been organised by us to discuss pressing issues,'' says a mandal member Vinod Satpute, adding, ``Debates are also held on local problems every year. This time, we have a special programme on Mumbai, Mumbai Mazhi Ladki, and an interview with Everest veer Surendra Chavan.''

The immersion procession here is also unique. In addition tothe singing of bhajans, the pushpavrushti (showering of flowers) on the Lord seated in the palanquin takes place all the way through the narrow bylanes of Girgaum to the Chowpatty sands. Among those who have delivered lectures here and participated in the annual debates are Veer Savarkar, N C Kelkar, Barrister Jamnadas Mehta, Senapati Bapat, historian Setu Madhavrao Pagadi, and recently, Bal Thackeray, Murli Manohar Joshi and L K Advani. And stalwarts like Comrade S A Dange, Prabodhankar Thackeray and S M Joshi have at some point of time in their lives been residents of this cluster of six chawls.

Concurred 22-year-old Mandar Kulkarni: ``This discipline and this way of organising things is the need of the hour. The other day, we organised a lecture in which the speaker initially entertained us with dollops of humour from the treasure-house of Acharya Atre. By the time he ended his speech, he had set us thinking on the state of the nation and the need for us youth to do something about it. Can a programme bemore relevant and apt?'' His 67-year-old father, Ramesh, who's lived here all his life, added; ``It's our tradition that sets us apart, and we're proud of it. Such a tradition undergoes the test of carrying high promise and uncertainty in roughly equal measure, but we'd always like to have a celebration commensurate with the wealth of our chawls' spirit.''