History:-
Having located in the Dattapada area which is surrounded by historical & ancient holy places like datta mandir, gaondevi mandir, ram mandir and hanuman mandir, Shiv Mitra Mandal is bound to have religious or rather superstitious image as ” Navsala Pavnara Ganpati.” The Bhaktas (people) have therefore themselves spread the popularity of our Ganpati to every corner of the city after self realisation of Bappa’s power.
If we look back to the year 1969, there was a kind of chaos in the minds of the then youth in the area and obviously there existed a pime need to bring the scattered youth under one strong bonding in order to control them from evil deeds and promote cultural unity in the area. In such a challenging situation, certain dashing personalities like Vasant Shinde, Vijay Waghmare, Balu Salvi, Bali Dhuri, Ram Chitale, Arun Shinde, Chandu Manjrekar, Pravin Naik, Shashi Kotkar, Hemant Shinde, Sambhaji Bhosale, Sonibhai alongwith Desai family, Ovalekar family, Arvind & Raja Khopkar came together under the eminent leadership of Bhausaheb Iyer to form & establish Shiv Mitra Mandal mainly for celebrating Shiv Jayanti and Ganeshotsav thereby developing social harmony in the dattapada area. Alongwith the lion share of Shri. Bhausaheb Iyer, also Manesheth, Shantaram Chavan, Busabhai, Dalpatbhai and Janisheth financially supported Shiv Mitra Mandal during this crucial period to hold their roots stronger.Shiv Mitra mandal celebrated their first Shiv Jayanti in April/May, 1969 and made a begining of Ganeshotsav in August 1969 at Ovalekar compound. The first satyanarayan pooja was performed by Mrs. & Mr. Tanaji Sawant and film shows on the roads was peculiar entertainment in the then Ganeshotsav programmes.
Over the years Shiv Mitra Mandal turned out from a small sapling to the huge banyan tree. The original venue of Ganeshotsav was shifted from Ovalekar compound to Hitendra Kale compound in the year 1976 and even administration of the mandal was taken over by second generation of Balkrishna Rane, Nerurkar brothers, Acharekar brothers, Sanil brothers, Mhasalkar brothers, Bane brothers,then Bhai Narvekar, Kushan Dandekar, Abhay Kesarkar, Suhas Padhye, Subhash Pai, Tawde brothers, Adv. Atul Tungare, & all others. During their tenure Shiv Mitra Mandal was registered and proper working committee was formed for the first time. Initially all the active members shouldered the responsibility of mandap & decoration of their own but gradually contract system got introduced and continued further. The mandal celebrated Silver Jubilee in 1993.The self made decorations in most of the Ganeshotsavs were the speciality of second generation.Initially Shri. Subhash Kale and later on Shri. Hitendra Kale continued to play a predominant role with their whole hearted support to Shiv Mitra Mandal.Providing place for Ganeshotsav in their compound, also a office space to Mandal and uncomparable support with ultimate noble feeling from entire Kale family has definitely obliged Shiv Mitra Mandal beyond imagination. Alongwith the leading role of Shri. Bhausaheb Iyer, Shri. Vishwanath Nerurkar, Shri. Bal Rane and then Dr. Padmanabhan Shetty, the current state Environment Minister Shri. Ramdasbhai Kadam too became wave of the stream with his strong support to Shiv Mitra Mandal.
Thereafter came the third generation of working committee Hemant Karandikar, Prashant Vaidya, Mangesh Dalvi, Dayanand Chodankar, Uday Sathye, Sandeep Sawant, Pravin Desai, Haresh Lakkad then Sanjay Desai, Manohar Desai, Rajendra Chheda, Arun Shetty, Mahesh Ghadi, Parmar brothers,Chandrashekhar Shete, Avadhoot Shingare, Girish Gharat, Pankaj Deshpande, Ketan Modi, Rajul Pitale, Ivan D’Melo, Jitendra Trivedi, Vilas Shinde, Mayuresh Bane, Suraj Ajgaonkar, Milind Desai, Atul Vaidya, Avinash Desai, Arvind Usapkar, Raju Patel, Santosh Paradkar, Adv. Manish Gharat, Nimesh Lad, Adv. Nitin Tungare, and many others to manage the working and programs of Shiv Mitra Mandal. The third generation has definitely created a silver lining on the horizon and taken the popularity of Mandal to greater heights. Today on the grand occasion of the Golden Jubilee year, many big business entrepreneurs are coming forward with donations and wiling to become part & parcel of evershining image of Shiv Mitra Mandal. Legendary and social theme decorations, day time disciplined processions, strict adherence of the government & police regulations and active participation of women during Ganeshotsav, as also the various stage competitions during Shivjayanti can be quoted as highlights of this generation who are the witness to both silver as well as the golden jubilee of Shiv Mitra Mandal.
While highlighting the glimpses of the history it would be most appropriate to mention about the active participation of over 50 female members in the various social as also cultural events under the able & cordial guidance of Mrs. Preeti Vaidya, Mrs. Chhaya Lakkad and Mrs. Sanjana Desai. The leading initiative taken by Mrs. Preeti (Chhaya) Vaidya in involving more and more women in Mandal deserves preferred attention. The history page of Shiv Mitra Mandal can not be concluded without mentioning about creating & developing fourth line of young dynamic leadership with the youth force like Pratik Pradhan, Viral Patel, Kunal Ranade, Harsh Bhosale, Deep Karandikar, Saurabh Sawant, Hiren Bavise, Rohan Rane, Vaibhav Shete, Varun Chachad, Vaibhav Parmar,Vishwas Shetty, Manas Desai, Ansh Ajgaonkar, Gautam Shinde and Atharva Deshpande in order to ensure the future of Shiv Mitra Mandal. Today on reaching the milestone of 50 years over an unblemished path, we can confidently say that our youth force have taken an oath to imbibe the name & fame of Shiv Mitra Mandal beyond the horizon.
Finally, it becomes our duty to mention about Naik Guruji and Arun Naik bhatji who have given the soul to our activities by performing “Pooja” consistently since begining without any selfish moto.The lively Ganpati idols made previously by renowned artist Vijay Khatu and now by Rajan Khatu add feathers in our crown every year.