Berhampur: As people have lost their homes, their lives’ earnings and have no promise of getting back to normalcy in the foreseeable future. It is hard to understand where Dussehra, sadly, arrived at the wrong time this year or did the cyclonic storm arrive at the wrong time.
At this time of year, the town is normally busy with Dussehra celebrations. But, there is no sign of festivities anywhere.
A week before Dussehra every neighbourhood in the district is usually decorated with lights and beautifully adorned pandals creating festive atmosphere. Persons who had bought rice, coconuts and other provisions as Dussehra was around the corner, could no save anything.
Members of various cultural organisaiton practice for hours to put up a series of cultural shows leading up to the festival and people go on a shopping frenzy to avail the discounts on offer.
However, this year has been very different. The flood has dampened the spirit of the season and residents have been forced to tone down the grandeur of the festivities.
Rotary clubs and cultural committees that organised extravagant navratri celebration, dandia nights and other cultural programmes have been left in lurch as people are not in a mood celebrate.
“We have been unable to sell tickets for the event as people are not in a mood to celebrate,” said an organizer.
Similarly, Pandals that are put up by collecting donations from people are feeling the pinch as they have not been able to collect donations or find sponsors.
Moreover, it is around this celebration time, a lot of tourists from all parts are expected to visit the places. However tourists have cancelled their trips, dampening the festive mood like previous years.
A local who loves to go visiting pandals in the town every year says he is not sure if the pandals he has been visiting every year since he was a kid have been set up this time.
“I’m not sure if we will celebrate Dussehra with much fanfare like other years as the situation is grim. I understand the people affected and going through a lot of troubles. My sense would not allow me to celebrate in this condition. I will instead prefer to pay solidarity for the lives lost and the affected persons and pray they recover soon from the tragedy in this Dussehra,” he said.
There is no assurance that there won’t be a repeat of this since there has been significant damage to the state’s ecosystem on account of major deforestation, illegal encroachments on the river banks and pollution. Nature has tasted blood in Odisha. It’s a long road ahead for the state to get back to what it used to be till about four days ago.
PNN