Ayodhya: In the temple town of Ayodhya Saturday, a group of women were busy planting flowers in hundreds of pots while a group of men loaded them into small canter vehicles to rush them to the roadside in four key areas of the city.
The work was part of last-minute additions to further beautify the decked-up city ahead of Monday’s pran pratishtha at the Ram Mandir.
Marigolds adorning the central verge of roads, fairy lights wrapped around streetlight pillars and decorative cut-outs bearing images of the Hindu deity Ram — these are the other works that are being hurriedly undertaken.
Speaking to ThePrint, one of the women on the job, Mansi, who hails from Bhartipur village in Ayodhya, said she had filled up around 200 pots with flowers in the past two days as the drive to beautify the town reached its last leg.
She has around 200 other women working with her, all potting the plants given by the municipal corporation.
“We get Rs 400 for a day’s work and Rs 100 for commuting. We are happy that we are getting to do God’s work,” Mansi said, adding that she had joined the team two days ago after hearing about the work from her friends, Sangeeta and Kesh Kumari, who have been working for the last four days.
Ram has given them all these jobs, they believe.
“Lord Ram has chosen us for this work and given us money. It’s all because of him. We are contributing to making Ayodhya beautiful for Ram,” Kesh Kumari told ThePrint, pointing her finger at the sky.
One of the men involved in the work, contractor Naveen Tiwari, added: “We have been asked to fill 20,000 pots with flowers that will be planted across Ayodhya. The plants have been given to us by the nagar nigam. We have been working for the last four days.”
The workers said they had been given instructions to decorate Ayodhya the way it would have been decorated on the day Ram returned from his 14-year exile, as believed in the Hindu tradition.
The flower pots will be placed on the four roads — named Ram Path, Bhakti Path, Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Path and Dharma Path — from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other dignitaries will reach Ayodhya Monday.
At almost every intersection in the city, songs about Ram are being played. Bus shelters along Rampath have been decorated with artworks on the epic Ramayana. Further, walls on the roads leading to the newly-built Ram temple have been decorated with murals of the Ramayana as well as the Surya Stambh pillars (with a circular glass light symbolising the sun installed atop), while ornate streetlights illuminate the roads.
While the town has been decked up, the temple trustees and members of the Vishva Hindu Parishad are busy managing the accommodation of the invitees, many of whom have already reached Ayodhya to attend the pran pratishtha.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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