Many devotees who viewed the trinity- lord Jagannath, Devi Subhadra and lord Balabhadra - in the chariots in Puri through TV screen here complained that the idols after Nabakalebar were not as appealing as the previous ones.
“This is not my Kalia that I saw many times before Nabakalebar at Puri,” said an elderly man Harekrishna Hota. “The Chaka Akhis (round eyes) are looking small. The Chaka Akhis do not resemble with the old idols. They seem to be very smaller ones,” he complained. He said that the dazzle in the eyes of lord Jagannath was missing in the new idol. Hota with teary eyes admitted that either something went wrong with him or with the idols.
Not only Hota, this is also the opinion of many others who saw their most beloved lord on TV screen on the day of the Rath Yatra. The continuous telecast of the irregularities during the Nabakalebara preparation might have created a wrong impression in the minds of the devotees, or they might have been psychologically baffled. But the whole fact was that they were never satisfied with the new idols on the TV.
The idols, particularly of Jagannath, were looking smaller. It might be a mistake on the TV screen. But the very view on TV is not a pleasant one as it was before, said Sabita Nanda, another devotee.
“However, we have to accept them as our lords since they are our Aradhya Devatas,” she quipped.