A group of widows from Varanasi and Vrindavan had a rare experience of their life time when they tied rakhi to their ‘bhai’ Narendra Modi at the Prime Minister’s residence here on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.
Rajkuri from Sarnath widow ashram and Annapurna and Shakuntala from Nepali ashram from Varanasi carried 2,000 rakhis from other widows of Varanasi and Vrindavan which they presented to the Prime Minister Manu Ghosh. 80, hailing from West Bengal and Arati Mistry from Vrindavan met Mr. Modi and tied Rakhis on the behalf of Widows of at his 7 RCR residence this morning for the festival.
Mr. Modi thanked the widows for tying the rakhis and said he had special bond with Varanasi, the constituency which he represents in the lok Sabha. Interacting with the Nepali widows, the Prime Minister said he has just returned after a tour of the Himalayan nation, where he visited the famous Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu.
After actively participating in Holi and Diwali in the past, the widows this time created history by tying ‘Rakhi’ to children and sadhus in Vrindavan,yesterday. They shared food with school children and upper caste sadhus and Brahmins on the occasion. The widows also participated in cultural programmes especially chalked out for the occasion.
Their life changed for the better when the Supreme Court intervened and asked NGO Sulabh International to take care of the widows waiting for death in despair in the last stages of their lives.
Sulabh founder Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, who takes care of around 1,500 widows in Vrindavan ,Varanasi and Kerdarnath observed that such an initiative will bring cheers to their lives. “So, my idea how to change thoughts, behaviour and attitude of the people of this country towards widows of India, who are their mothers, sisters, aunties and so and so forth,” Dr Pathak explained.