nashik is known for its dholtasha groups and adding another feather to its hat this year is the increase in the women participation in the dholpathaks earlier groups which only had five women now boasts of 20 in one group balasaheb deshpande a member of gulalwadi vyayamshaala vaadya pathak said on the day of visarjan we are going to have a group of 50 men and 50 women participating where they will play the dhol tasha and zhaanj cymbal women usually focussed more on playing the zhaanj and tasha they have now started playing dhol as well traditionally dominated by men today a lot of citybased women are stepping out to be a part of the such groups devyani lele who hails from satara and came to nashik after her marriage she joined a dhol group and performed in a procession in the city recently dr priyanka kurdukar who is a dentist by profession has also joined the dhol tasha group in the city arun mungsee a bpo professional who heads the shivsanskruti dhol pathak said we used to practice in the premises of vidya prabodhini prashala school and devyani used to come to teach the students to play the zhaanj she saw us practicing and approached us and later joined our group the one thing that stands out for devyani and priyanka is their determination devyani is also involved in several cultural and creative activities and has also headed a zhaanj group in maharashtra we had a big group of girls from the agegroup 23 to 70 and we would perform at various events after coming to nashik i had two options either to start my own group or join some other group it was during that time that i met arun and his group i have been practicing with them for about 10 months now this is my first dhol performance on such a big platform she shared after watching these two ladies perform in the city a lot of young girls have also shown interest bhagyashri dick a 21year old interior designer joined a group 15 days ago she says during my school days i have been a part of small processions i have just started practicing and i hope to perform with the group soon though some are still hesitant to take it up devyani explains girls and their families dont feel safe to be a part of anything new that is quite understandable considering the recent cases the boys in our group are very well behaved and hence we never had any uncomfortable experiences we are doing our best to encourage girls to come forward and learn this traditional art form