Vizag Diary:Continued...

27th Feb, Monday:12:00 P.M.

We took the beach road as usual. Tirthankar and myself. But it was pretty crowded. Yesterday was a festival day for the Hindus; Shivaratri. There was a fair in the beach to celebrate the Shivaratri.So people from outside Vizag also thronged here for this purpose. We took an alternative road to avoid the heavy traffic. We went to a supper market for some shopping. It was quite hot and patchy outside. As we were coming back on our way to home through the congested roads, suddenly appeared the sea from the narrow curve of the city. The afternoon sun was smiling all over the sea. It seemed like the water was on fire. The sea looked so gorgeous and vibrant. We stopped the car near a tea-stall. The breeze blowing was cool and refreshing. After having the tea we decided to visit the fair on the beach.

Shivaratri means "the night of Lord Shiva (one of the Hindu Trinity known as Destroyer or Re-producer of life)". According to Hindu Mythology, on this day Shiva was married to Parvati (human avatar of Hindu Godess Durga). For more information on this you can visit http://festivals.tajonline.com/maha-shivaratri.php

The main festival took place on Sunday night. So it was comparatively less crowded and moreover it was lunchtime. A huge Shivalingam was erected on the beach. It would be approximately 10-12 ft. in height and had a diameter of about 6ft. And the Shivalingam was created using small Shivalingams of identical size and colour. Many temporary shanties had been erected on the beach with the help of bamboo sticks, cloth and dried tree leaves. Devotees were taking rest under it in the scorching sun. Many of them were cooling themselves in the sea. People had come from the neighboring states also. Mostly these were poor people from villages.

Business was there too along with the religion. Hawkers were selling products made from seashells and stones; chains, lockets, fancy stuffs. The shops were generally running by a group of people. I went to such a shop and as I was taking photographs, people, from elderly woman to kids, got very curious about my digital camera. I took few snaps and showed the photographs on the LCD display panel of the camera to them. They returned my gesture with such a natural smile that I hadn't seen in a long time. One of the elder in the group asked us, from where had we come. Hearing about Kolkata, he said that they stayed in Kolkata for ten years. They used to sell stuffs made from the skins of squirrels and that sort of animals. After government imposed a ban on selling and purchasing these products, they became jobless and struggling to earn their living. They were virtually traveling with their family across the India for the business.

Government and NGOs these days take care of the animals and forests. There is a widespread awareness about the preservation of forest and wild animals. But there is very little concern for the people who live in forest or earn their living from the forest. They have no other skills to make their livelihood. These people are not poachers. Government and the NGOs working on this kind of projects should also take proper rehabilitation measures for these poor, hapless people.