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83,000 dancers to honour DadajiBy: Natasha Gupta Date: 2010-12-20 Place: MumbaiYoungsters to get together to pay tribute to Magsaysay award winner Pandurang Athavalefor his 90th birth anniversary celebrationsIn a grand tribute to the late philosopher and 1996 Magsaysay awardee, PandurangAthavale, better known as Dadaji, in the year of his 90th birth anniversary, some 83,000youngsters from different parts of the country will come together today in Kharghar for adance performance.The commemorative event, called Namastubhyam, will be held on 700 acres of open spacebeyond Central Park, and is expected to attract 10 lakh devotees of Dadaji, a social reformerand spiritual leader who founded the Swadhyay Parivar and won the Templeton Prize in1997.A 32-minute dance routine will be performed in Kharghar to commemorate his 90th birth anniversaryDr Rajesh Parikh, one of the coordinators of Namastubhyam from Ahmedabad, said, "Theseyoungsters are 16-30 years old Swadhyayees from across the country. They'll be performingYuva Vandana, a 32-minute dance routine as an expression of gratitude to, Dadaji."

Asked how such an unwieldy number synchronised with one another, Dr Parikh said, "Weinvited two or three representatives from each of our youth centres across the country andheld a day-long training session for them.They in turn taught their representative centres. And here we are, with a mock practice with43,000 youths, just a day before the event itself."MiD DAY spoke to a participant of the grand choreography, Rajesh Kadchha (27), and hesaid, "Our dance is our namaskar to Dadaji."Dr Srikant Parikh, another coordinator, said that it is difficult to got youngsters interested insocial or spiritual movements."I think youngsters today want to do something good but they don't know how to. In such asituation, they benefit from the teachings of Dadaji in bringing about a positive change intheir lifestyle," he said, adding, "We have invited 3 lakh people, but I wouldn't be surprised ifup to 10 lakh people show up."Source:http://www.mid-day.com/news/2010/dec/201210-90th-birth-anniversary-Pandurang-Athavale-83-000-dancers.htm