Rains spoil 'Ashadi ekadashi' festivities

Announcements. Most of them gratuitous, shrill and omnipresent. On Katrak Road, Wadala, announcements oozed out of the loudspeakers installed by political parties on Wednesday, on the occasion of Ashadi ekadashi. On this day, lakhs of varkaris arrive in the city to seek blessings from Lord Vitthal whose temple, on a par with the original one in Pandharpur, is in Wadala.

Colourful flags of political parties drooped from tree branches and street lights; long and wide banners with odd photographs of political parties and personalities printed on them, devoured all the vacant spaces above the ground. Makeshift stages, from which members of the political parties shouted their greetings to the devotees, occupied both sides of the road.

There were also small traders peddling toys, garlands, musical instruments, snacks and sweets on the sides of the streets. Steadily, a stream of devotees arrived and left. Some of them were accompanied by their groups, while others had themselves, and the needless noise and amusing promotional tactics of the small traders, for company.

Mohan Ganpat Sutar, dressed in a red sadra, white dhotar and saffron pheta arrived with his dindi, a group of 150-odd worshipers of lord Vitthal. This is the 51st year of his organisation, The Colaba Vithoba Rakhumai Mandal, at this temple. The organisation makes two such trips every year: one during Ashadi ekadashi and the other during Kartiki ekadashi, to Wadala and Pandharpur respectively.

He has been involved with this organisation for the past two decades. He says, “This dindi differs from the others in that we do not carry a palkhi but a veena, a Tulsi sapling and a long wooden stick while dancing our way to the temple.” There is also a team of twelve devotees among them who sing songs in praise of Lord Vitthal and play the cymbals. The dindi also performes aarti in the temple and sings bhajans outside it.

Rains this year, however, prevented the arrival of a substantial number of devotees. Senior police inspector Sunil Deshmukh, in-charge of the police bandobast for the event, said, “Due to the persistent rain since morning, the turnout of devotees is 25% less than our estimated numbers this year.” And that affected not only the overall mood of the occasion, but also the earnings of the small traders who turned out in substantial numbers, hoping to make a windfall at the event.

Shankar Tori, a toy-seller and a resident of Kandivli, bought extra toys to sell; he also asked his wife and two children to man the additional place he reserved by arriving early in the morning. “We had arranged the toys from early morning, but were forced to wind up as soon as it started raining,” he said.