Mumbai: Citywide festivities mark Ram Temple Pran Prathishta

The spirit of the Pran Prathishta event at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya was felt across the city with various local events ranging from the cleanup of temples to live telecast of the ceremony in local trains and stations On the Western Railway WR 40 screens were set up at various stations and about 960 TV screens inside local trains relayed the live telecast of the Pran Pratishta ceremony of the Ram Temple event as reported by a WR spokesperson Central Railway had 278 screens at various stationsPran Prathistha ceremony being screened for the publicTemple cleanupPeople celebrated the Ram Temple ceremony in every possible manner Most celebrated it even at home by offering sweets prasad and lighting diyas Even sweet shops joined the celebration by making special mithai for the consecration ceremony ldquoThere were many types of sweets specially made for this occasion We brought one with lsquoJay Shri Ramrsquo embossed on itrdquo said one of the devoteesA cleanliness campaign is being carried out on the temple premises by the BMC CM Eknath Shinde actively participated in a temple cleaning campaign at Shiv Shrishti Ganesh Mandir Kurla Nehru Nagar and Nandikeshwar Mandir Kamgar Nagar in the Kurla area Chief Minister Shinde mentioned that cleaning the temple helps in cleaning the entire surrounding area This campaign is gaining strength as the manpower of three to four departments is united to clean the area simultaneously Also public sanitation has improved and citizens of the local area actively participated in this cleanliness drive Schoolchildren from Kurla also enthusiastically participated in the cleanliness drivePrivate lab displaying a banner in observance of the temple ceremonyHospitalsOn Monday afternoon near Sion hospital firecrackers were burst in celebration Opposite KEM hospital youth were seen preparing for a rally on twowheelers with saffron flags in hand Several private labs in the city had put up banners in observance of the temple ceremony Within the hospital premises no overtly religious display was observed However JJ Hospitalrsquos Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors MARD set up an lsquoaartirsquo within the JJ campus near the hospitalrsquos main building In many parts of Borivli a major celebration on roads malls and societies was witnessedMalls and societiesEmployees of Moksh Plaza a mall in Borivali West were seen dressed in saffron clothes A security person requesting anonymity while speaking to midday said ldquoIt is an auspicious moment for all of us We should definitely celebrate itrdquo Another employee said ldquoWe took a collective decision to wear saffroncoloured clothes and distribute prasad to people visiting the mall to mark the consecration celebration of Ram MandirrdquoRangolis of Ram Mandir and Lord Ram at PanchDham Cooperative Housing SocietySocieties across Borivali organised cultural festivals followed by dinner for the residents A managing committee member of a society in Borivli said ldquoWe have organised a cultural programme and dinner In our circular we have specifically mentioned that no one should be forced to attend the event as the society has a mix of Catholic Muslim and Hindu residents Surprisingly many residents of other faiths also participated in the events willinglyrdquoRangoliPanchDham Cooperative Housing Society in Anand Nagar Dahisar East adorned its two wings with festoons and rangolis depicting the Ram Mandir and Lord Ram Each household in the society illuminated diyas to mark the occasion of the consecration of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya The society arranged a recitation of SunderKand the fifth of the seven bookskands of Ramayana in the evening followed by a Maha Aarti Additionally residents organised a gettogether in the form of a dinner Maha Prasad to enhance the festive spiritFrom left Anand Prakash Gupta Manoj Jalan Narendra Potdar Vimal Punamiya Mahendra Sonawat Vishnu Kediya Navin Bagediya members of Bharat Merchantsrsquo Chamber Trust at the pooja organised at Kalbadevi on Monday on the occasion of the Ram Lalla Pran Pratistha at Ayodhya The members also distributed food to the less fortunate and organised a bhajan afternoon PicSameer MarkandeldquoApart from decorating the society premises and celebrating the day we wanted our kids and the younger generation to understand the importance of the day The idea was to organise events like SunderKand recitation etc so that youngsters know about the life of Shree Ramchandra Ramayana and its beautiful teachings and more importantly our legacyrdquo said Alpa Gohil a resident of PanchDham40No of screens set up at various stations