Heavy rainfall due to Cyclone Phailin, since October 12 spoiled the festive mood of Ranchi people this Durga Puja.
Apart from performing the essential puja rituals in temples and pandals, majority of the population preferred staying back at their homes instead of hopping the pandals across the city on these two days.
It was on Vijaya Dashami on Monday when the rains stopped for few hours in the evening and crowds thronged puja pandals.
Describing the scene of crowd on Monday, Sriparna Basak, an M.Phil English student of Ranchi University residing at Kokar Industrial Area said, “Usually, the road wears a deserted look on Dusshera but this year it was completely opposite. Though the shops were closed but people seemed happy to drive and walk on road this time as it had stopped raining. As an impact of this rain, the mercury too had plunged forcing us to sit at home for more than 48 hours.”
“like every year, I thought roads would be isolated on Dashami but this year it was just the opposite. The clear sky probably was the main reason of this sudden crowd,” Mayuree Kiran, a resident of Kanke said.
Noticing the date and day, entire Bengali community puja committees like that of Hinoo, Durga Baati, South Office Para, North Office Para, and HEC did the idol visarjan on Monday since Tuesday is not meant for visarjan according to Hindu religion.
To avoid any chaos on the occasion of Bakri-Id scheduled on Wednesday, other pandal committees were seen busy in idol visarjan on Tuesday.
Replying diplomatically to this hurried process of visarjan a Durga Puja committee member of Main Road said, “We have been following the tradition of idol visarjan just after the day of Vijay Dashami. There is nothing like we are doing it in a hurry.” As per Indian Meteorological Department’s forecast on October 11 regarding Cyclone Phailin’s affect on overall State of Jharkhand, the State capital remained on much safer side than other districts of Jharkhand.
A scholar informed that this least affect of heavy rain in Ranchi gave people the scope to hop on Dashami else the situation was worst at Jamshedpur and Bokaro.