Weddings bands in Delhi are set for a busy day on January 22, as several celebrations, events — cultural and religious — will take place to mark the ‘pran pratishtha‘ of the Ayodhya Ram Temple.
Over 1,500 events are scheduled across the national capital, including temples, societies, markets in the lead up to the consecration ceremony day, said Brijesh Goyal, Chairman of the Chamber of Trade and Industry (CTI).
“There has been a surge in demand for music groups and people who perform ‘Sundar Kand‘ and ‘Dharmik Paath’ due to the wedding season and pran pratishtha,” Goyal was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.
The timing of the consecration ceremony is in synchronization with the beginning of the wedding season in Delhi, meaning that bands are receiving booking requests for weddings as well as spiritual events.
Although the requests are overflowing beyond their capacity, they are still trying their best to accommodate all of them.
“This year has witnessed a substantial increase in the demand for dhol, and band, baaja due to ‘Ram Barats’ being taken out. We will start our day at 4 am. Both small and large bands are preparing,” said Jea Band owner Satya Anil Thadani.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi will preside over the pran pratishtha ceremony, band members — used to performing wedding songs — are now preparing devotional songs dedicated to Lord Ram.
A member of the Rajdhani Band said that they are fully booked due to such a crucial event. “We are practicing special songs for the day. Performers are preparing to play the popular bhajan ‘Ram Aayenge to Agnana Sajaungi’, and special dhol beats during the aarti,” he added.
The members of the band, will in fact, wear special saffron-coloured uniforms on the day.
Another owner of a wedding band, Ajay Prakash Sharma, said that musical groups are facing a shortage of players due to the clash of dates. “We are adding more people to the group as the location of events are also far from each other. We have made six teams of six, 10 and 15 people,” he added.
There are bookings for multiple events and weddings on January 21 and 22, said Naushad, a member of the Chauhan Band. “During the same time last year, we got bookings for just one or two weddings. But this year’s Ayodhya ceremony has brought a lot of work to us,” he added.
The Sadar Bazaar Traders’ Association is among those who have booked a wedding band to play for them on January 22.
President of the Association, Rakesh Kumar Yadav, said that they are excited about the ceremony day. “We aim to create the best atmosphere in the market, where the streets will be filled with sounds of devotional songs and bhajans. We have booked a band for the day. We aim to celebrate the joy, ensuring we don’t miss out on anything,” Yadav added.
Requests Pour in For ‘C-Section’ Delivers on ‘Pran Pratishtha’ Day
Pregnant parents from across the nation set out to have ‘muhurat deliveries’ on January 22, coinciding their child’s birth with the pran pratishtha ceremony in Ayodhya Ram Temple.
Doctors in Ayodhya’s district hospital are flooded with requests from expectant parents wanting to have a C-section on Monday.
“It’s a weird request and the count is increasing by the day,” a doctor at the district hospital for women in Ayodhya told News18.
Dr Alankrita Ayan, medical officer at the hospital, said that the 100-bedded hospital — with five surgeons, who also examine OPD patients (out-patient department — get around 150 to 211 patients a day at the OPD and of these, many are expecting mothers.
The superstition to have their children born on an auspicious and historic day, somehow seems to have overtaken the authority of medical advice.
“Nothing could be as auspicious as the day Lord Ram will be virajmaan in the Ram Temple. We have urged the doctor to align the delivery accordingly,” said Veena Nishad, an expecting mother.
Expecting couples like Bharti and Anoop Mishra, like many others, are also of the belief that babies on the pran pratishtha ceremony day will have the qualities that define “Maryada Purushottam”.
Bharti’s original due date – February 7 — has been moved forward by over two weeks so that her delivery could be aligned with the temple’s inaugural day, a Times of India report said.
Dr Nirajan Chavan, president of Mumbai Obstetrics and Gynaecologist Society, said that the increase in “Ayodhya consecration” births has brought up ethical and medical considerations. However, he said, the association does not support “muhurat deliveries”.
Dr Seema Diwedi who works at the Meerut hospital said she has received around 12 to 14 such requests. “The hospital administration has also made special arrangements to fulfil the wish of the expecting mothers and carry maximum deliveries on the day,” she said.
Talking about this muhurat trend in deliveries, Dr Cherry Shah from Mumbai’s Surya Hospital was quoted by ToI as, “This trend has picked up in the past few years. If I am conducting eight to ten deliveries a week, half of them would be scheduled for a particular day and a time demanded by the families. Sometimes it is possible, sometimes not. It all depends on the medical condition of the mother and baby.”
The pran pratishtha ceremony of the grand temple is scheduled to take place between 12:15 pm and 12:45 pm on January 22.
(With PTI inputs)
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