Puneites spilled out of the corridors, squatted in the aisles of Balgandharva Rangmandir and watched on a screen on its greens as `Tatya' Prataprao Godse received the Punyabhushan award from `Didi' Lata. Godse declared that he was receiving it on behalf of the 40,000 Ganesh mandals in Maharashtra.

Announcing a donation of the Rs 25,000 he received as part of the award to the Punyabhushan Foundation of social organisation Tridal, Godse seized the opportunity to remark to Mayor Dattatreya Gaikwad present on stage, that in case he wished to present him a gift on his coming 75th birthday, it was land for the planned Dagdusheth Halwai Ganapati Mandir which he preferred, of course, to instant applause.

``As I stand here I remember the martyrs of Kargil and pay tribute to them,''said Lata, and called Godse the ``senapati of Ganesh sevaks.'' Admitting that she had heard of Tridal only last night in Pune, she compared this organisation, founded in the memory of martyrs Bhagatsingh, Rajguru and Sukhdeo, to the trishul held by Lord Shankar.

The man who rose from garland seller and bank watchman to chief trustee of the extravagant Dagdusheth Ganapati Mandal, passionately announced that he held Lata as a national personality in the same league as Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and Jamshedji Tata.

An emotional ceremony where the audience laughed, clapped, nodded and cheered with the dignitaries present, saw the felicitation of five freedom fighters by philosopher Babamaharaj Satarkar, chairman of the function. Prof K L Joshi, a veteran of the Quit India Movement, Dr W N Kubere, who participated in the Satara freedom struggle, Shanta D Kelkar, famous for the mahila morchas she led in 1942, Indira P Gupte, who participated in the Vinoba Bhave's Bhoodan Movement and Vitthal G Bhide, a member of the Azad Hind Sena, shared the stage with Mayor D Gaikwad, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, scientist Jayant Narlikar, environmentalist Mohan Dharia, Commissioner of Police K K Kashyap, and chairman of Tridal, Dr Satish Desai.

``We were ready to do or die during the freedom struggle because of our faith in our leaders, who would unhesitatingly die with us,'' said Shanta Kelkar, speaking on behalf of the freedom fighters. ``We are no exception, thousands of youth participated in the movement with equal intensity,'' she said.

In a lighter vein, ``I won't call Lata didi, because I am older,'' she quipped. ``But my guess is that her voice is still barely 28 years old.''Vijay Kuvalekar, editor Sakal, described the rise of Godse to his present stature, calling his work a 50-year tapasya. ``Tatya today means Dagdusheth Halwai Ganapati,'' he said.

Describing Godse's award, of a trophy with a Bal Shivaji ploughing Pune's land with a golden plough, as an award for every Ganapati worker, for every Marathi speaker, for every Ganesh devotee in the world, Desai also announced the launch of the Punyabhushan Foundation, and appealed for membership and funds so it could continue its humanitarian work on a larger scale.

The entire auditorium rose at the conclusion for the national anthem, as Lata hummed it softly on stage, and resonated with cries of Bharat Mata ki Jai and Ganpati Bappa Morya as it ended. Sudhir Gadgil conducted the function in his usual flamboyant style, drawing reactions from the packed hall at his every announcement.