CHHATH PUJA AT YAMUNA

This weekend is Chhat Puja one of the most important religious days for Hindi


TIMES NEWS NETWORK



New Delhi: Chhath was celebrated with much fervour in the city. The banks of the Yamuna, colourfully decorated with flowers and lights, were reverberating with devotional Bhojpuri folk songs on Saturday. Thousands of devotees, including those observing fast, thronged the ghats to offer prayers to the setting sun.
After fasting the entire day, people offered Chhath Sandhya Arghya to the setting sun by standing in knee-deep water. As the evening sky changed colours, the lamps offered in the river by thousands of hands made for a truly delightful sight. The festival will culminate at dawn on Sunday after devotees offer Arghya to the rising sun. One of the devotees, Laxmi Devi, said, ‘‘The eldest lady of the house usually keeps the fast, but my mother-in-law has stopped keeping it. This is the first time I’ve observed the fast. However difficult, we always keep the fast.’’



Some ardent male devotees who’ve kept the fast for their wishes to come true crawl the entire route from their home to the river bank out of devotion. There were many youngsters who had also kept the fast. Twenty-year-old Deven Prasad said, ‘‘I have kept the fast hoping for a better health for my mother who is suffering from cancer. We have a lot of faith in Chhath Mayi.’’
Carrying cane baskets containing coconut, sugarcane, and seasonal fruits on their heads, men accompanied their wives to the ghats.

HAPPY DIWALI- ALSO FOR THE RAGPICKERS ?

TIMES NEWS NETWORK



New Delhi: As the Central Market at Lajpat Nagar shimmered and everyone went about shopping and eating out with family, 10-yearold Dipak pushed through the crowd with a sackful of rags on his shoulder. Diwali is serious business for ragpickers like him for this is when they make that extra buck with gift wrappings, cardboard containers and disposable plastic strewn all over the place.
Dipak starts his day as early as 5am and leaves his house in Badarpur to collect the rags before Central Market opens. Festival time means more work for the wrappings disposed of by shopkeepers are better in quality. The day’s collections from the sale of these waste items gets the children anywhere between Rs 50 to Rs 100 on an average. Festival days are, however, special and rags can fetch anywhere up to Rs 150 a day.
Rahul, 12, comes from Madanpur Khadar to Central Market with his grandmother to sift out useful waste from the lanes of the market.
He said that the collection of plastic wrappings has gone down this time due to the plastic ban. Ragpickers earn up to Rs 150 during festivals as compared to Rs 50-150 on normal days




Festival means boom time for city ragpickers
A vacant parking space in the middle of the market reveals the Diwali collection of these ragpickers. On the eve of the festival the children and their guardians were seen going through large sacks of waste items. From used glasses, plates, empty bottles, cardboard wrappings to ropes and containers, the sacks stock almost every piece of useful waste collected through the day. While Moushmi’s mother sorted the waste, the five-year-old giggled away smashing and rolling a used plastic glass a shopper threw along the way. For these children, life revolves around waste.
Ten-year-old Zakir who had a busy day in crowded Sarojini Nagar market pointed that after the market closes the collection process will pick up as that’s the time when the police doesn’t chase them away.
The buzz and the glamour of the markets is in absolute contrast to their lives, but these ragpickers perform their roles focussing only on the road below watching out for every small piece of waste that can get them money.
Ragpickers earn up to Rs 150 (approx 2 Euro) during festivals as compared to Rs 50-150 (approx 1- 2 euro)on normal days

A more cynical news paper article is indeed hard to find

SYSTEMATIC ASSAULT ON CHRISTIANS NOW ALSO IN NEW-DELHI

The fanatical Hindu mobs have struck in the Capital. And the police has kept it under wraps. A good fortnight ago, a mob attacked a handfullof Christian families at the Peeragarhi Relief Camp and demolished the frontal portion of the Christian prayer hall in the camp.

This camp in west Delhi is barely 15 km from Parliament House. To this day, this group of Christians is holding weekly mass with police protection. The families say they are living in constant fear of local miscreants allegedly owing allegiance to ''some religious organisations'' who accuse them of carrying out ''forced conversions'' and threaten to ''take away'' their daughters unless they ''mended their ways.''

The mob had struck on September 16. Despite repeated attempts, the community has not managed to get a FIR registered for what they call ''vandalism'' and police describe as ''regular land dispute''.

Ezik Malik, the priest-in-charge of the prayer hall says that a day before the actual demolition, he had got a call from an unidentified caller saying that the roof of the hall had collapsed.

''We promptly went to rebuild it when suddenly this mob of 500 reached the place carrying saffron flags and sticks. They started pelting stones that left six people injured. There were anti-Christian slogans and then they demolished part of the hall. Policemen just looked on. On hindsight I realised that they had damaged the roof to create a situation that could later be used as an excuse for unrest.'' He added that despite repeated attempts the local police station refused to lodge a FIR but gave the community protection.

Sister Rani, who was praying inside the hall when the incident happened, says she was attacked by some of the men. ''It's like a never-ending nightmare. There have been no arrests and we are living in constant fear of more attacks.''

Struggling to hold back her tears, a petrified Pyalo Dev said: ''They come everyday since that incident and ask us to leave this area as we do not 'belong' here and we should not be practising Christianity in this area. I am scared about my teenaged daughter. All the women from our community who go out to work are followed. It is a nerve-wracking situation and I do not know how much more of this I can take.''

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