In September 2008, the ‘Govindas’, who form the human pyramid to break the dahi handi in cities like Pune and Mumbai, will be joined by robots from 20 countries across the Asia Pacific.

The Robocon Asia Pacific 2008, a robotics competition, organised internationally by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasters Union (ABU), will have manual and automatic robots designed by engineering students from various countries performing set tasks modelled on the lines of the dahi handi practice.

Robocon, which began in 2002 to foster good relations between the Asia Pacific nations, is usually based on a specific theme unique to the culture and traditions of the host country. This year it is being hosted in Pune by the Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT) and Doordarshan (DD). With MIT’s official selection as a host in August 2007, the theme has been announced to be dahi handi.

“We wanted the competition to be based on an Indian mythological event that could also be converted into a game. After contemplating a number of ideas, we finally settled on dahi handi,” said Sunil Karad, executive director of MIT and chief convenor of Robocon 2008. The robotic version will be a symbolic dahi handi, where automatic and remote-controlled robots from two opposing teams will be required to retrieve butter cubes.