The Dussehra festival that marks the victory of good over evil drawing near, works to make effigies of Ravana, Kumbhkaran and Meghnad are going on now in full swing at S D Inter College ground at Racecourse in Dehradun. A team of artisans from Haryana is engaged in making the effigies to be torched on the Dussehra evening. They are now giving the final touches, it is learnt.
This time, the effigy of Ravana, the mythological demon king, which will be shown up on the chariot at Parade Ground will be 60 feet high while those of Kumbhakaran and Meghnad would be 55 and 50 feet respectively. Apart from these , horses are also being prepared for the chariot.
The artists have almost completed the making of effigies, said Santokh Singh Nagpal, president of Dehradun Dussehra Committee.
According to him, 30 artisans from Haryana are now busy completing the task of making the effigies. “Three giant effigies and the firecrackers to be used to torch them are costing us Rs3 lakh. Ravana would look different this time. The effigies of the demon trio would be more colourful this year,” he added.
People from across Dehradun city and some other nearby places are likely to throng the Parade Ground in their thousands in the evening of Dussehra-October 22- to see the enormous effigies of the demons getting reduced to ashes, epitomizing the destruction of the ego-spawned arrogance of power and pelf in the hands of the forces representing the righteous.