COURTESY TOI AUG 3

Diwali bonanza comes early for Ayodhya potters
SMILES BACK ON POTTERS’ FACES AS EVENT BRINGS WORK, INCOME
Shailvee.Sharda@timesgroup.com

Jaisinghpur (Ayodhya):

When an unknown number rang on Ravindra Prajapati’s cellphone on July 25, he dismissed it as spam. When he picked up the phone in the second go, the leader of 40 potter families in Jaisinghpur, about 30km from the temple town, was dancing in joy. Prajapati was given a mammoth order of making 1.50 lakh earthen lamps for the bhoomi pujan of Ram temple. For these potters, it came as an advance Diwali bonanza.

“It is a bonus…” he shouted and called the community to share the happiness. “Thanks to Ram Lalla, this off season opportunity has brought smiles for all of us,” Prajapati said.

“Bhoomi pujan is a historic moment and we have urged the people of Ayodhya to celebrate the moment by lighting earthen lamps,” said Champat Rai, the general secretary of Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.

Soon after the call, potters in Ayodhya got into action. On Sunday, potters of Jaisinghpur dispatched over 75,000 earthen lamps to mark the return of Ram from ‘second exile’ (the lord had been in a makeshift tarpaulin roof since the demolition of Babri Masjid. Now he has been moved to his original abode on janmabhoomi premises).

“Men, women and children across 40 families in our village have been working overtime to complete the order,” said Rajesh Prajapati, whose family has made over 25,000 lamps.

His relative Poonam said the order came as a blessing in disguise.

Rainy season, however, threw a major challenge before potters. “There was no sunlight. Also, the humidity content in the air is high. Both the things prolonged the drying up process. So, the freshly made lamps were dried under the fan. In fact, pedestal fans were also deployed to speed up the process,” said Rakesh.