Manchester City hosted Fifth Rath Yatra Festival with fanfare and spiritual fervour, Rahul Laud reports
Gita Bhawan temple in Manchester was aesthetically and elegantly decorated to mark the Grand Occasion of Rath Yatra . Commencing from the morning special religious rituals were performed before the Four Deities with utmost solemnity and unfettered devotion by the main priest Pandit Shyam Sunder Sharma. Organised by North West Odisha Society this year’s Festival evoked unusual interests, unexpected enthusiasm and unprecedented excitement among both the organizers and participants. More than thousand Odia and non-Odia devotees congregated at Gita Bhawan alongwith their family and relatives to take part in the Event.
At about 12.45 p.m. the four deities were taken in Dhadi Pahandi procession to the colourful chariot, parked outside Gita Bhawan. Superbly designed the chariot was decked up with an amazing Patachitra painting designed by Renowned Artist Pragyan Babu.
The whole atmosphere got reverberated with the recitals of hymns, roaring slogans like Hari Bol, Jai Jagannath, sounding of hulahuli, blowing off conch and playing of musical instruments such as Ghanta, Mardala, Jhanja and Mrudanga.
The highlight of the celebration was the Pahandi of Goddesss Subhadra being performed exclusively by ladies. The street of Manchester witnessed the Royal Sojourn of the Trinity on board the chariot in a majestic manner. The Gods and Goddess’s caravan went through Wilbraham Road, Werburgh’s Road, Brantingham Road and Withington Road before getting back to Gita Bhawan premises. Master Carpenter Simranjeet Singh showed his extraordinary workmanship by repairing the moving chariot instantly when the Juggernaut was about to stop due to detection of a technical snag. The distinguished dignitaries present include Councillor Vimal Choski and Renowned Spiritual Preacher from India Devi Chitralekha.
The highlight of the Festival was the presentations of a colourful Cultural Extravaganza. Famous Motivational Speaker Dr Deepak Gupta’s Divine discourse was highly emotive and impressive. Special attractions of the supersonic show include soul soothing Bhajan recitals by noted vocalists like Tanishka Gupta, Dr. Siba Senapati, Disha Patnaik, Jayan Panigrahi, Dr. Kapeelmeet Kaur, Deeptiman Rath, Dr Rajinder Singh, Priyanka Geemon, Harshangda Bhatnagar, Soumya Panda, Ms. Manorama and Ms. Supriya. Odissi Exponent Rekha Senapati, Saanvi Sahoo and Drishika Panigrahi enthralled the audiences with their scintillating Dance recitals. The Cultural Programme was ably presented and co – ordinated by Ace Anchor Priyanka Bebarta.
Among other leaders Mamit Agarwal from Bolton Hindu Forum Radio and renowned podcaster was also present .
The entire arrangements of the Rath Yatra Festival was well managed and skillfully conducted with active supervision of the Organising Committee consisting of Dr Siba Senapati, Rekha Senapati, Siba Ranjan Biswal, Bishnu Dash, Jeeban Panigrahi, Prasanta Sahu, Sudhakar Sahoo, Bibek Babu, Surendra Nath Acharya, Sanjeev Srichandan, Prabhat Singh and Sujeet Behera.
