Diwali 2022: This Virar society is keeping fort-making tradition alive for 20 years

This year they made Panhala fort located in Kolhapur. Pic/Aniket Malgundkar

Keeping the Diwali tradition alive for two decades, this Virar society brings youngsters together to celebrate the festival. While making historic forts during Diwali has been a tradition, not many people follow it these days.

The residents of the Kamanwala complex in Virar have been making historic forts with the best out-of-waste materials for many years.

A 33-year-old Aniket Malgundkar, an engineer, said, "This year we have made Panhala fort located in Kolhapur. Every year, the youngsters come up with different ideas and one fort is shortlisted. All kids and youngsters of the society come together a week in advance to make the fort and participate in the fort-making competition."

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Speaking about the aim behind this activity, Malgundkar, expressed, "Besides keeping the festival tradition alive, the fort-making activity also helped to bring different age groups people together, make the kids learn about the history of Maharashtra. it is a team-building and learning experience. Nowadays most kids play games on mobile but this exercise helps them to learn something new by coming together."

In the past, this society has made different forts such as - Tikona fort, Sindhudurg fort, Harihar fort, and Pratapgarh fort.

"We make the fort using mud, stones, cardboard, and other waste items. Nothing is made up of non-recycle material," added Malgundkar.

Similarly, the BMC too had organised a fort-making competition last week where a few students from BMC school participated to make different forts situated in Maharashtra and have historic importance.