Ramlila with twist: Ram & Sita marry during show in Gzb

The couple, who were planning to marry on Oct 23, exchange vows during Ramlila Dwaipayan Ghosh | TNN Publication: The Times Of India Delhi; Date: Oct 18, 2010; Section: Times City; Page: 2 http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:LowLevelEntityToPrint_TOINEW&Type=text/html&Locale=english-skin-custom&Path=CAP/2010/10/18&ID=Ar00201 Ghaziabad: When the 55 feet tall Ravan burst into flames at Indirapuram — triumphing good over evil — two men represented the face of the celebrations in the city. For K Hassan, working president of the Trans-Hindon Shri Ramlila Samiti and S R Zaidi, member of the same samiti, it was an achievement of sorts. It was three months ago that they had come together — amply supported by Trans-Hindon residents Amar Pal Sharma, local politician and Dayamanti Bisht.‘‘The Ayodhya verdict did come as a dampener and uncomfortable questions were raised. The fact that we all stuck together like one family was our greatest achievement,’’ said Hasan. Among those who lent their hand in creating a fund were Sukhbir Singh, the chief of the local Gurdwara Prabandhak Samiti and captain M K Tayal, whose wife played an important part in the preparations even though she is a Christian. According to Tayal, they had booked a group from Moradabad to organize the Ramlila. ‘‘We were pleasantly surprised to know that the leading actor playing Rama — Arjun — and the leading lady playing the role of Sita — Divya — were getting married on October 23. We decided that they exchange the jaimala for real on the very first day of the celebrations in front of thousands of people,’’ said Tayal. This is the first time that the Samiti has come together after the locals of Indirapuram and Vaishali said they had not one Ramlila to celebrate. ‘‘I hail from Azamgarh where we celebrate every festival — be it Eid or Guru Nanak Jayanti. Later, when I joined Aligarh Muslim University and studied engineering in 1959, I became a member of the students’ council. It was from that time that I wanted to celebrate each festival with the same secular sentiments as regards for each faith,’’ said Hasan, a former deputy secretary in the ministry of railway. The police too, gave their support. ‘‘It was an initiative that needed our support. We were involved with the planning right from the very first day. We had a wonderful team that helped to see us through all the security measures and the screening of visitors at the entrance,’’ said a senior police officer from the Indirapuram police station. ‘‘We took special care to use nonpolluting crackers and fireworks. We have also used remote controlled effigy burning so that there was no chance of an accident during the effigy burning process,’’ said Hasan. ‘‘Our success has lifted our spirits and will do even better next time.’’