Category Archives: World Opinion

State to put fossil park on international map

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Green Initiatives / Environment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Nature, Records, All, Travel, World Opinion

Lucknow :

The Uttar Pradesh government is working on a plan to get international recognition for the fossil park at Sonbhadra, considered to be the oldest fossil finds in the world. This work will be carried out along with the development of Kapilavastu, Kushinagar and Sharavasti, areas closely connected with Lord Buddha.

Speaking in the Vidhan Parishad on Thursday, tourism minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi said a research team has been formed and a roadmap would be chalked out to promote the fossil park internationally. Members of Samajwadi Party had demanded that the government get UNESCO recognition for the site, as it had recently done for Varanasi.

“The fossil park at Sonebhadra is older than even the Yellowstone National Park in the US. Earlier, I could not have taken action as the area came under the environment department. However, recently an MoU has been signed between the departments of environment and tourism for the development of eco-tourism. We will take up the fossil park under this MoU and soon have a plan in place to ensure international recognition for the area as a heritage zone,” she said. The roughly 25 acre-fossil park in Salkhan is believed to be more than 1,400 million years old and is located 12 km from Robertsganj, the district headquarters of Sonbhadra.

The fossils were reportedly first discovered in the 1930s but the area was designated a fossil park only in 2002. Fossils of algae and stromatolites have been discovered in the area, adjacent to the Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary. A similar fossil park was discovered a few years later close to the one in Salkhan, in Badagaon village under Chopan Vikas Khand. This year, said Joshi, Rs 89.60 lakh has been sanctioned for various development work to be carried in and around the fossil park. She said the Centre had sanctioned Rs 99 crore for a project to develope tourism in areas closely linked with the rise of Buddhism, namely Kapilavastu, Kushinagar and Shravasti.

Outlining works that were already going on, Joshi said the area would be developed as acircuit that would promote tourism in the entire region.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Lucknow News> Civic News / TNN / December 22nd, 2017

Lucknow boy makes it to Stanford University

Education, World Opinion

Lucknow :

Devansh Sharma brought laurels to the city after getting an admission offer from Stanford University on December 9 under the Restrictive Early Action (REA) decision plan for the undergraduate class of 2022.

Devansh’s family has a unique relationship with the prestigious US university as his elder sister Priyanka also got her undergraduate degree from there and is now working in San Francisco. His other sister Divyanka, too, is doing her MBA at Stanford.

A student of Doon School in Dehradun, Devansh had been preparing for his application since class 9. Besides being an outstanding student, Devansh is an avid chess player. He has won prizes in inter-school, regional and FIDE-rated chess tournaments. He has also been chess captain of Doon School.

Stanford University has been consistently ranked in the top three universities of the world. Only a handful of applicants are admitted from India.

Some renowned alumni of the university are: Doug Mackenzie, Reese Witherspoon, Tiger Woods, John F Kennedy, Marc Shapiro and Azim Premji.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> Cities> Lucknow News> Schools & Colleges / TNN / December 19th, 2017

Singer Yatharth Ratnum nominated for MTV EMA 2017

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, World Opinion

Mumbai :

The Stage season 1 winner Yatharth Ratnum has been nominated for MTV EMA 2017 in London as Best Indian Act.

The singer exclaimed, “This is really amazing as I got nominated for my first single Continents. It’s cool because I am nominated against real heavyweights like Nucleya, Raja Kumari, Hard Kaur and Parekh and Singh.”

The singer is all excited that he is hearing wishes and messages from all the sides on being nominated. He said. “Everyone is sending me a message saying we voted 100 times as multiple voting is allowed. It’s a good feeling for me to be there.”

Talking about his success he said, “The Stage was a much-needed show as there are so many artistes in this country and they are craving to tell their story. The Stage gave me the platform where I was able to tell my story. I come from Varanasi and to me to do western music or English music is a big deal. Stage changed my life around, gave me so much and now I get to work with top people in the industry. I really feel fortunate to be the winner of the show.”

The voting line will be open until 11 November and the final result for Best Indian Act will be announced in London on 12 November.

source: http://www.radioandmusic.com / Radio and Music.com / Home> News / by RnM Team / October 17th, 2017

Lucknow-born composer attempts weaving Chinese history, philosophy into a grand musical

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Nri's / Pio's, World Opinion

Lucknow-born composer and conductor Vijay Upadhyaya is trying to capture the essence of Chinese history and philosophy into a grand musical composition.

Vijay Upadhyaya’s opera Chang’an Men tells the story of Chinese history and culture through music

In Chang’an Men, or The Gate of Eternal Peace, Lucknow-born composer and conductor Vijay Upadhyaya attempts what even Chinese musicians consider a daunting exercise: distilling the essence of Chinese history and philosophy into one grand musical composition.

Unveiled in Beijing on November 13 to a packed Beijing Concert Hall, Upadhyaya’s ambitious 80-minute symphony fuses Western and Chinese styles. It features an elaborate Western choral arrangement, several Chinese classical instruments and a southern Chinese folk singer.

It was an impressive debut, despite the fact that Upadhyaya had only a week with the China National Symphony Orchestra in Beijing. “This was the first time such a composition was commissioned by the government of China to a foreigner,” he said after the concert.

A naturalised Austrian who has lived in Vienna since 1987 and heads the music department at Vienna University, Upadhyaya has been visiting China regularly for a decade. Over the past two years, he has visited every six weeks to research Chinese history and philosophy, and it took him nearly a year to write the opera. “The opera basically tells the story of Chinese history and the roots of Chinese philosophy through music,” he explained as melodious sounds drifted through the grim, Soviet-style residential complex in north Beijing that forms the base for the China National Symphony Orchestra.

Upadhyaya says his hope for the symphony, which will be performed in Vienna next, “is to not only explain Chinese culture abroad but to their own people,” especially to the younger generation that’s forgotten its roots.

The first of the symphony’s four movements draws on the Lunyu, or Analects of Confucius, expressing the five traditional virtues of noble being, righteousness, proper conduct, wisdom and trustworthiness. A quintessentially Chinese piece, it ends with a sense of aggression that Upadhyaya says is meant to represent the chaos of the Warring States period and subsequent search for order that fuelled Confucian thought.

The second movement is inspired by the I Ching or Book of Change. It is slow and melodious, following the tones of language in the tradition of performances of old Chinese poetry. The ‘guzheng’-a stringed Chinese instrument-features prominently, played by musician Wei Ji of the China Central Conservatory of Music.

While this writer found the guzheng-heavy movement to be the most powerful one, Upadhyaya appears most passionate about the third movement. It features singer Cai Yayi performing Nanyin, a type of folk music from southeastern Fujian. “Nanyin is a dying art and she is one of few authentic artists trying to preserve it,” he says.

In India, Upadhyaya performed a similar orchestral arrangement using Tamil and Malayalam folk music, and plans to do so in Telugu and Kannada. He believes China is doing far more than India in promoting traditional culture and fast-fading folk arts. The Chinese government has invited him to be part of a “1,000 experts” programme to advise the government on promoting the arts and preserving traditions. “India and China are facing the same problem, and it’s not due to any political system but because of changes such as the media and globalisation. In India, it is being killed through Bollywood. Besides the Carnatic music tradition, there is the Hindustani music tradition but folk music is dead. The diversity is dying out.”

“The difference,” he says, “is that the government of China has a programme to try and keep this alive. This is a major policy emphasis and in India we simply haven’t seen any such effort.” But music is not the only arena where he feels China’s authoritarian government is outperforming Indian democracy. It’s also doing better in the fight against pollution and gender inequality, he says. “Working in China for 10 years, I don’t believe in democracy anymore,” he said. “India and China started in the 1970s at the same point, and look at where China is today.”

He laments that political squabbles have thwarted more cultural exchanges between India and China. “There is a big acceptance and respect for Indian culture in China, but I find that India is too defensive about the whole thing. They see us as a similar culture, but there seems to be a lobby in India that is against China. Maybe there are political issues in Arunachal or Kashmir, but you can also look at the positive points, whether business or culture.”

Starting a joint India-China orchestra, he suggests, would be one small step in addressing the disharmony. But that, for now, remains an unfinished symphony.

source: http://www.indiatoday.intoday.in / India Today / Home> News> Magazine> Leisure / by Ananth Krishnan / November 14th, 2017

Kabir by the ghats: Mahindra Kabira Festival in Varanasi brings together finest musicians

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, Travel, World Opinion

Indian classical music’s finest and folk/fusion rock’s dependables came together along with speakers, authors and designers to draw from the wellspring of poet Saint Kabir

At the second edition of the Mahindra Kabira Festival in Varanasi last week, there was a connection between geography, history and art that few festivals in the country can claim to make successfully. Across two days, on November 11 and 12, Indian classical music’s finest and folk/fusion rock’s dependables came together along with speakers, authors and designers to draw from the wellspring of one of India’s near-mythical status poets, Saint Kabir.

As is the tradition in classical music festivals, including the Jodhpur RIFF, there were morning and evening sessions of performances across two days. You really haven’t experienced classical music in this kind of setting until you’ve heard santoor prodigy Kumar Sarang and tabla player Shrutisheel Uddhav render raag Bhairavi or veteran vocalist Rashmi Agarwal just as the mist over the Ganga river clears behind them and the sun comes into view. Kumar Sarang and Shrutisheel Uddhav share an excited smile as they perform, closing with added vocals from Kumar, using the Kabir couplet ‘Moko Kahan’.

What followed was a dastan-e-goi by Ankit Chadha, easily one of the best highlights for any music and non-music lover. This was where the festival’s main showcase of literature, music and culture came together with great modern relevancy, Chadha sitting and boldly talking about Kabir in a way that everyone understood, laughed and nodded in agreement to.

If Chadha had attained rockstar status by the end of his session, it was a sign of things to come on the music side of the festival. The Mahindra Kabira Festival had enlisted rockstars who knew their Kabir – Hindustani vocal veteran Shubha Mudgal (who closed proceedings on day one with stirring renditions of Kabir, including ‘Saheb Hain Rangrez’), master drummer Nathulal Solanki (world-renown for collaborating with everyone from Ben Walsh to Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, but every bit humble as he performed on day two) and of course, folk fusion rocker Kailash Kher’s Kailasa. The band who closed proceedings at the festival were received with roaring applause throughout and Kher, still a jokey humble guy, managed to bring out all the hits at their highest volume, something that may have irked some of the classical music listeners who’d stayed to check it out.

The headline sessions were interspersed with acts that would be great new discoveries for any crossover crowd that wasn’t averse to contemporary retellings. Among the strongest storytellers of Kabir (and Rahim) was singer-songwriter Harpreet, who played his heart out twice at the festival. Meanwhile, Mumbai-based fusion act Maati Baani became a new discovery for many, their friendly energy (and Varanasi-bred French clarinet/saxophone player Madhav’s impeccable skill) keeping the crowd at Assi Ghat interested.

Although Maati Baani too picked ‘Moko Kahan’, Bengaluru-based Bindumalini and Chennai-based Vedanth Bharadwaj (on day one, at the Chhota Nagpur ka Bageehca stage) were a little more even-tempered in their presentation, picking Kabir and Kumar Gandharv works with help from percussionist Ajay Tipanya. Day one’s evening session mood-setters where dependable voices such as the versatile Vishnu Mishra and Rajasthani vocalist Mahesha Ram, whose rustic yet hypnotic music had everyone clapping along.

In between, nuggets of Kabir – courtesy of celebrity designer Aabha Dalmia and writer Vinayak Sapre (who linked economics, commerce and Kabir’s poetry with mixed results)—were proof enough that here is literature and history that is striving to be current. It’ll be interesting to see how the festival curates more names influenced by Kabir. Perhaps that would be a true testament of the saint poet’s relevancy, as well as the festival.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Music / by Anurag Tagat / November 21st, 2017

Dutch expertise for UP to increase milk productivity, conserve water

Agriculture, Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Lucknow :

Dairy farmers and workers at Kanpur leather clusters will now learn methods to increase milk productivity and conserve water respectively, by the technology and expertise being brought in by the Dutch government. As a continuation of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Netherlands and the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government in 2016, two new projects were launched by the Dutch Ambassador on Monday.

The Dutch delegation including ten companies with an investment interest in the state will be meeting up with chief minister Adityanath Yogi in Lucknow on Tuesday.

n a joint co-operation between Dutch company PUM, and Tasty Dairy in Kanpur, a centre of excellence will be set up, targeting an increase in processing of butter, cheese and ghee.

“Currently India processes only 10% of its milk into products and we hope to train the industry in increasing that to atleast 30% which will increase employment and economy,” said Dutch ambassador Alphonsus Stoelinga, in a press interaction.

The second project launched on the day is a public-private partnership to clean up Ganges where methods for conservation of water both at source and in the processing of leather, will be shared with workers. “Atleast two workers in around 5000 tanneries will be given the skills that will indirectly affect around 2,50,00 people,” said ambassador Stoelinga. He added, “A lot of water is wasted in cleaning the animal hide off salt before processing can be done. If this is just rubbed off like powder,water can be saved.”

Pre-treatment of water before it reaches the treatment plant that would cut down on the toxic elements released into the river and using the process of electrolysis making lime usable and reusable for treating animal hide, are also part of the skills to be enhanced. Supported by the Sustainable Water Fund Programme (FDW) with a grant of over Rs 2.3 million euros, the private partner from NEtherlands is a chemical company, Stahl which will work with Indian partners including Ganga Pollution Control Unit, Central Leather Research Institute and the local industry association.

Netherlands also inaugurated the Consulate for Kingdom of Netherlands and appointed Sharat Thadani as the first Dutch Honorary Consul in Lucknow on Monday. Dutch ambassador Alphonsus Stoelinga termed Netherlands as the first country to have its consulate in Uttar Pradesh. “This is a big state with tremendous potential and issues with water, agriculture and environment that Netherlands with its expertise can help ease out,” Stoelinga said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Lucknow News / by Yusra Hussain / TNN / November 13th, 2017

Kaydence Media to promote Benares Artist Punam Rai globally

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Nri's / Pio's, World Opinion

In an endeavor to promote Indian talent globally, Dubai – based Kaydence Media signed one of India’s talented and upcoming artists Punam Rai.

Dubai [UAE], (ANI-NewsVoir):

In an endeavor to promote Indian talent globally, Dubai – based Kaydence Media signed one of India’s talented and upcoming artists Punam Rai.

“My life is a miracle. I am today living, moving and painting because of the blessings of God. I want my voice to be heard all over the world through my paintings. I am a victim of the evil of dowry and have lived for 15-years bed-ridden with no hope of survival. I found my strength, my voice and my life back in my art. I want to tell the world – do not let others paint your life, you are the artist of your life,” said Punam.

Kaydence Media over the next two years have planned four exhibitions in India and Middle East to showcase the artworks of Rai.

“Punam Rai is an icon for all women not only in India but across the world. Life handed her a tragedy and she has overcome it with the beauty of art. We are humbled to represent her and her artwork in India and on a global stage. We believe that her artwork is exquisite, captivating and priceless. Her artwork can compete with the best artist in the world,” said Myrtle Rodrigues, CMO, Kaydence Media.

Punam Rai recently won the World Records India, Most Unique faces created in Canvas Record on August 10, 2017. (ANI-NewsVoir)

This is published unedited from the ANI feed.

source: http://www.india.com / India.com / Home> News> Agencies / by ANI Feeds / November 09th, 2017

The Chikan Chronicles

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, World Opinion

Paola Manfredi’s recently-launched book Chikankari – A Lucknawi Tradition is a rare document on the history, growth and beauty of the craft

It is a labour of love and the result of painstaking research. Chikankari – A Lucknawi Tradition by Paola Manfredi, an Italian, is a book that shows her close and long association with the craft.

Lucknow’s chikankari is known across the world yet very little research or documentation has been done. Articles or features have appeared off and on but this book is amongst the first of its kind, which aims to document the vast treasure called Chikan.

What makes the book extremely interesting is that unlike other books that tend to rely on second hand material, with exhaustive references and quotes, Paola Manfredi has filled her tome with passionate grass-roots level research. The narrative more in the nature of a personal journey, with all the quirks and street-smart practicality, makes the book refreshing. As Paola says in the book, it is not a scholarly or academic research but more of a documentation of the world of chikankari.

Paola questions the use of chikan as a word for embroidery, highlighting that it has a broader connotation encompassing haute couture, the fine art of making a garment, embroidering it and finishing it with finesse. She is no stranger to chikankari having worked with SEWA and several craftsmen. Her love for white on white embroidery also found a calling in chikan.

Paola came to India to work in textile exports and as she says, “If you like textiles … India is a heaven, an inexhaustible treasure trove.”

Travelling through Lucknow

Fascinated, she stayed on, researching, adapting and understanding. She has walked the bylanes of Lucknow, spending hours meeting nearly all the families of master craftspersons and talking to block makers, exporters and commercial businessmen dealing with chikan, Government agencies, NGOs. These interactions come through in her writing. Nowhere has the process of printing the design for embroidery been dealt with in so much detail. “I have barely scratched the surface,” she says. One perceives such humbleness throughout the book. The tone is that of a seeker — a person trying to find the nuances of the embroidery, the origin, the history and the answers to whys, hows and wheres. It comes to light in the documentation of the stitches as she wonders about the number of stitches that make up each piece of chikan work?

Each master craftsperson has his or her repertoire. After a lot of field work, she questions herself in trying to define the boundaries of the craft with its number of stitches and whether she is actually right in trying to pin it down? She has listed the various stitches with their common names in Hindi. The book also features jalas — the technique of creating lattice-like work on fabric.

She has dealt in detail the finishing techniques of daraz and turpai. Quilted chikan, rarely seen, has been illustrated with some beautiful pieces. She says, “I have seen a white coat made in this fashion, which has not been included in the book.” This work was popular in Bhopal.

She has also painstakingly sourced images. There is a beautiful painting from V&A of a woman embroidering what looks like chikankari. Also the superb work done on fine muslin is a sight to behold. The creation is so fine that capturing it on camera is difficult. But to her credit, it has been shot meticulously. The women who were the unsung part of this tradition and now make up a large majority have been given their due in the book.

Paola has touched upon every aspect related to the craft, even the dhobis, who wash the finished garments. The book is worth its weight in gold for the exceptional research.

How did your tryst with India begin?

I first visited India in 1978, and came to work in textiles export at the end of 1981. Indian textiles have such a long history. They reached far and wide in the world and are expressions of most amazing aesthetics and techniques. I have met many artisans, men and women, incredibly skilled in different needlecraft and soon realised that they could interpret and execute my concepts and designs.

Why did you choose to focus on chikan?

Since its inception, SEWA-Lucknow produced very fine needlework with a rather unique repertoire of motifs and stitches. I was particularly intrigued by chikankari that reflected the Lucknawi ethos. The mystery of its origin made it more interesting for me.

Searching for references on it, I was surprised to find almost none. This led me to look for old pieces in museums in India and abroad, in private collections and with antique textile dealers. The search led me to unexpected and exhilarating findings that strengthened my resolve to go deeper and deeper.

Are the traditional craftpersons still committed to pursuing this art that requires immense patience ?

Most of those doing chikankari are women living in rural areas, for them this is a good source of income, however meagre. To prevent them from giving up the craft, we need to support them. It is important to make them aware of their exceptional skill and be proud of their tradition. We also should equip them with modern knowhow to understand the demands of changing times.

How easy was it to work with the craftspersons?

It was a fulfilling experience. They not only gives a peek into the aesthetic process but also the challenges. Working with them was a constant learning experience. It was a journey of discovery of the many possibilities that one can’t even imagine.

Is there a regular team of craftspersons you coordinate with?

I closed my ari workshop in 2008, when I shifted too far to follow it up. When I began working on the book in 2012, I felt that I had not involved myself in any design and production activity to avoid misinterpretation and facilitate the research and access to the documentation I was looking for.

Your favourite chikankari stitch?

Difficult to say, as the textural complexity, typical of chikan, stems from the combination and permutation of different stitches.The craft’s vocabulary is amazing and each stitch has a part to play in different compositions.

Is the book a culmination of all your efforts or a beginning to do more on it?

I would say both. The book was important as it was like marking my first step. However researching on it brought up different questions and issues, not all of which could be addressed in this book. Not sure if there will be another book, but certainly I would like to answer some of those questions.

Anything particular about the book that is special to you?

There have been many special moments and I met some exceptional people while working on the book. I experienced an emotional undercurrent in their narratives. An incident that I will cherish is when I was presented a few old children chikankari kurtas, damaged, but precious craft pieces. I would like to emphasise the need to document craft traditions.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society> History & Culture / by Chitra Balasubramaniam / October 26th, 2017

In India, she found real freedom for the first time

Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All, Travel, World Opinion

It is indeed curious how some remarkably important historic events can vanish from the collec tive memory of people. Not many remember that exactly 50 years ago, the daughter of the most powerful communist dictator of USSR, Joseph Stalin, had landed in a small village of India at the height of USSR’s global dominance and the Cold War.
Svetlana Alliluyeva spent three months in Kalakankar, a sleepy village right on the banks of river Ganga in Pratapgarh district.

However, hardly anybody in India knows accurately the events surrounding the remarkable journey of Svetlana, who gave up on the famous surname of her father.

It was during a boating expedition organised by UP Police down the Ganga till Kalakankar that somebody mentioned to me about the extraordinary real life story of Stalin’s daughter having come and lived there. Even after living for so many years in the state, I had never read or heard of those extraordinary events.

As I explored later, I found that Svetlana had carefully and beautifully written about her stay on the banks of the Ganga in her memoirs, originally in Russian, and later translated into English as `Only One Year.’ In the mid 1960s, years after Stalin was dead and even after Khruschev was `dethroned’, that this remarkable lady, who by that time had two grownup children from her previous marriages, came in contact with an old, idealist, romantic Indian communist called Brajesh Singh, in Moscow. Brajesh belonged to the rich landlord family of Kalakankar and happened to be an uncle of the then-foreign minister of India.

Under extraordinary circumstances, they fell in love and despite protestations and forebodings, were `married’, though the marriage was never registered under Soviet law.

Brajesh, who was already very ill when the two met, tragically died soon after and Svetlana decided to take the ashes of her late ‘husband’ to Kalakankar. After all, Kalakankar was his home. Once in India, tasting `freedom’ for the first time, Svetlana began to toy with the idea of never returning to USSR. After a lot of prevarications, she finally picked up the courage to defect to the west–something that must have been big international news in those days of peak Cold War.

But for an Indian, the real value and beauty of Svetlana’s memoirs is the insightful observations made during her stay in Kalakankar, her meeting with then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi–she had stayed in Kalakankar during an election campaign–and her description of public figures like Ram Manohar Lohia and Dinesh Singh. She also talks of people’s growing disenchantment with politics even 50 years ago.

Her evocative descriptions of Magh Mela, travel in a crowded general category train to Lucknow, her warm appreciation of simple-minded generous villagers, her genuine respect and praise for Gandhiji and Nehru and most of all, her beautiful imagery while describing the rural Indian landscapes have both literary and historic value.

After Svetlana emigrated to the US, she sent money, a part of her royalty, to build a hospital at Kalakankar that is now a school. It was her way of paying homage to the memory of her late husband and his country.

Today, Brajesh Singh and Svetlana and their story are largely forgotten but not entirely. The memory of that kind, humane spirit and those few months, 50 years ago, still somehow lingers among the local populace at Kalakankar, where Stalin’s daughter stood, or otherwise, how would I come to know of her footsteps on the sands of time.The writer is a Lucknow enthusiast and an IAS officer. He also likes to read, is a sports enthusiast, and is also a keen nature lover.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Lucknow News / by Partha Sarthi Sen Sharma / TNN / November 05th, 2017

‘Weather helped us in Guinness record attempt to keep diyas alight’

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, World Opinion

Ayodhya :

There was an unusual flicker emanating from the banks of Saryu river on Wednesday. Lined up coherently on the ghats of Ram ki Paidi, around 2 lakh oil lamps shimmered on the steps leading to the holy river as renditions of ‘Hey Ram’ bhajan played out from gigantic speakers.

It was with this that the state government attempted a Guinness World Record to light up 1.71 lakh diyas for at least five minutes continuously amid thundering cheers of residents and tourists present in the temple town.

Having aligned beautifully around 2 lakh diyas filled with over 10,000 litres of oil, 2 lakh cotton buds and around 25kg of camphor, the target was to break the previously held record by Dera Saccha Sauda that had lit up 1,50,009 diyas. Wednesday’s Deepotsav was claimed to be bigger and brighter.

“We were able to keep alight 1,87,213 diyas, as was counted by the team from Guinness records. The official letter after verification of the same will be handed over to us in the next five days,” said Prof Manoj Dixit, vice chancellor of Avadh Faizabad University who with the local populace and the tourism department had attempted the feat.

“The weather was favourable to us with no breeze; that helped us through and through. If all goes well, we will make this a Diwali tradition in Ayodhya now to be followed every year,” added Prof Dixit.

Around 3,000 volunteers, mostly students, helped set up the diyas neatly on the ghats, that later served as the perfect background for people’s Diwali festivities, with reflection of the many temples on the ghats showing in Saryu’s shining waters.

The occasion was followed by innumerable photographs being taken etching for people a memory of the historically unique moment.

Following this, a laser show recreating the Ramayana succinctly followed. A huge white screen showed scenes from the life of Lord Ram in laser light, leaving all enthralled.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Lucknow News / Yusra Husain / TNN / October 19th, 2017