The date has been set for the customary burning of the effigy of demon king Ravana and it is the evening of October 3 at Morhabadi ground. The display of crackers dissipating the symbol of evil on the day incidentally known as Vijaydashmi is set to become yet another magnificent display of victory of good over evil.
The Punjabi Hindu Biradari which has been organising the event for the last 50 years, has put everything at stake for a scintillating show at Morhabadi ground. The demon king will be set on fire by none other than Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who will be the chief guest of the event. The organisers this year are heaving a big sigh of relief as apparently there is no last minute suspense over the participation of the Chief Minister. Ranchi MP Ram Tahal Chaudhary and Ranchi MlA CP Singh will share the dias with the Hemant.
“We have a letter confirming his (CM’s) consent. It is written in our minutes of the meeting that the chief guest has to be always the incumbent CM of Jharkhand,” said president of Panjabi Hindu Biradari, Mukul Taneja.
The demon king this year will be dressed in beautiful attire made entirely of thermocol and like previous occasions will be decimated by fire God after a colorful event depicting slaying of evil forces through chhau dance. Fireworks will be eye catching as a new method of bursting crackers will be displayed. The entire show will cost around Rs3.5-lakhs and Ravan’s dress alone will cost Rs1.10-lakh. The effigy of king of the mythical city of lanka will be 65-feet tall, followed by the effigy of Kumbhkarna (60 feet) and Meghnath (55-feet). The mythical city will be of 30x30 feet.
The committee has sought support from district administration to manage crowd which they are expecting to be around two lakh and to prevent any untoward incident either by any fault of the organisers or the unruly crowd. Previous year the joy of the event was eclipsed by freak accidents when branches of trees fell as people stood over it to see Ravan going in fumes.
“The administration has been very supportive from the very beginning. Deputy Commissioner Vinay Chaubey himself is supervising the security arrangements. We have written letters to almost every senior police personnel to depute forces to manage crowd so that last year’s incident is not repeated,” added Taneja.
The occasion is memorable for Ashok Nagpal, oldest member of the Biradari and in many ways a person who is associated with the history of the tradition set by Biradari. Nagpal reminisces the beginning of the history and how it turned out to be a mega-event from a festival of handful of migrant Hindus of Pakistan.