India News | Drawn by Ram Temple, 'mini India' Descends on Ayodhya Ahead of 75th R-Day
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. A group of friends from Kolkata talking in Bengali in the streets, a team of cooks from Gujarat whipping up hot 'bhandara' meals for devotees and a man from Pune selling Maharashtra's famous 'pheta' headgear - a 'mini India' has descended on Ayodhya, all drawn by the allure of the Ram temple.
Ayodhya, Jan 25 (PTI) A group of friends from Kolkata talking in Bengali in the streets, a team of cooks from Gujarat whipping up hot 'bhandara' meals for devotees and a man from Pune selling Maharashtra's famous 'pheta' headgear - a 'mini India' has descended on Ayodhya, all drawn by the allure of the Ram temple.
The holy city is generally dotted with saffron flags. Several people can be seen waving the saffron flags on Ram Path and other key streets, all heavily crowded. However, some can also be seen carrying the tricolour in hand or mounted on a bicycle.
On Friday, India will celebrate the 75th Republic Day. Preparations are underway from Delhi to Lucknow to mark the occasion which reflects the unity, diversity, heritage and socio-cultural ethos of the country.
Around five lakh devotees visited the Ram temple complex here on day one as it opened its doors to the public on Tuesday, a day after the consecration ceremony on January 22 with Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking part in its rituals.
Also Read | PM Narendra Modi, French President Emmanuel Macron Hold Roadshow in Rajasthan's Jaipur (Watch Video).
The entry of devotees to the temple complex begins at 6 am and the last entry is at 10 pm, according to officials.
Lakhs of people from several parts of the country taking different modes of transport, including riding bicycles, have reached the temple town in the last several days. Some have even travelled on foot. All of them have brought the colours and cultures of their regions.
Ram Path, the main thoroughfare in the heart of Ayodhya, is still choked as devotees have flooded the streets of the temple town which has been gripped by religious fervour over the opening of the grand mandir.
It will not be an exaggeration to dub this as a 'mini India' street, given the diversity of languages, costumes and culture on display here - day and night.
Three office colleagues from Kolkata visited Ayodhya on Tuesday for the first time. The trio wore matching saffron 'kurta' paired with a white pyjama and a religious 'patka' (scarf bearing name of Lord Ram).
Dipak Shukla, 39; Shubham Chaurasia, 31; and Nilmoni Mukherjee, 42 - all three from Kolkata - visited Hanuman Garhi temple. Before heading for a 'darshan' of Ram Lalla, they took refreshments or, as Bengalis call it, did an 'adda'.
They spoke among themselves and with family members over phone in Bengali while a group of friends from Maharashtra stood near them interacting in their native tongue Marathi.
On Ram Path and at the iconic Lata Mangeshkar Chowk, people can be heard talking in different languages with 'Ram Aayenge', 'Awadh Mey Ram Aaein Hain' and other songs playing in the background.
A civic society from Ahmedabad has put up a huge 'bhandara' in a makeshift facility on an open plot along Ram Path near the main gateway leading to the main temple complex. Posters in Gujarati and Hindi have been hung next to each other at its entrance.
Jayanti Bhai and other staffers serve lip-smacking 'khichdi', 'puri sabzi' and 'bundi' to the devotees drawn from Bihar to Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to Telangana in separate batches.
"About 500 'karigars', including cooks - both men and women - from Ahmedabad had arrived in Ayodhya in the first week of January. We started the 'bhandara' service about 10 days ago. This food is for everyone, whoever comes here. We do not ask anyone's religion, caste or region they belong to," he told PTI.
Everyday, about 30 sacks each of potatoes and vegetables are used for cooking these meals.
"We are serving them in devotion to Lord Ram in his Ayodhya," said Jayanti, as he fixed his muffler to protect himself from the cold.
The rich and the poor both can be seen rubbing shoulders inside the 'bhandara' camp, savouring simple yet much sought after meals, representing a slice of peaceful co-existence in the land of diversity that is India.
Nearby on a walkway, a group of men who have come from Pune, are wearing matching saffron 'pheta' - a traditional headgear of the region.
It was being sold to the people for Rs 100 a piece. Many devotees were seen wearing the headgear wrapped over their heads by these men from Maharashtra.
Palash Thange and his friend Mayur Bhor, devotees from Maharshtra, both wearing a special shirt printed with an image of the Ayodhya temple and 'Jai Shri Ram', visited Hanuman Garhi temple on Tuesday morning along with another friend from their home state.
"People from all parts of India are here, it seems," Thange said.
The duo was enamoured by the decoration in the city and concurred that they wanted to stay longer in the temple town.
Gaddamidhi Teja, 23, an MBA student from Telangana's Hyderabad who reached Ayodhya a few days ago with an aim to have a 'darshan' of Ram Lalla, roamed around to admire the illumination of the city.
Ayodhya city itself is a picture of diversity, with old shrines associated with Jainism and Sikhism besides a few mosques dotting the holy city.
Vaibhav Malik, a chartered accountant from Panipat in Haryana who had a 'darshan' of the deity on day one of its opening, feels a history of dispute and the subsequent protracted litigation also draws many people to Ayodhya and to this new Ram temple.
Ahead of the 75th Republic Day, the spirit of India is thus all-pervasive in the 'land of Lord Ram'.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)