Abki baar Lohri manegi: City’s dholwallas are fully booked, say shava shava!
Tired of the pandemic pause, the lull in Lohri festivities has come to an end as Delhi residents book dholwallahs to add music to the bonfire! In the midst of this, dhol players and dhol company owners are finally feeling like their tyohar is being made.
Come January, and NCR wastes no time in planning for the winter festivities alongside the bonfire, for the festival of Lohri. Savouring rewari, gajjak, peanut and popcorn, what comes as a must is the dhol party! And this time around, after a gap of three years, finally Lohri will be celebrated in full gusto, So the dholwallas in the city are inundated with enquiries and bookings for the festivities.
“Abki baar asli Lohri manegi, itne saal baad,” says Manoj Rana, from a dhol company based in RK Puram. He gushes about the non-stop calls that are coming in from those who celebrate the festival. “I started my company about four years ago, and unfortunately my business has seen more Covid times than festive times. Par iss baar achhi bookings aa rahi hai. Kaafi log apne ghar pe bula rahe hain. So far I’ve received sevenconfirmed requests.”
Veeru Sindhi, from Sindhi Hira Nand Ghori Wala in Chandni Chowk’s Lajpat Rai Market, is spending all day on his phone taking bookings for Lohri. “We are fully booked for January 13,” he informs, adding: “Abhi thoda sa Corona ki news aayi zaroor hai par jaise pichle saalon mein logon ko darr tha, waise nahi hai. Ab toh log mask bhi nahi laga rahe, toh ghar pe dhoom dhaam se function karenge hi. In fact, lot of people are organising Lohri functions in banquet halls, which mainly include families that have newly wed couples celebrating their first Lohri after wedding. Mera phone bajna band hi nahi ho raha. I’ve been receiving atleast 50 calls everyday since the beginning of this month.”
In the Insta age, it’s not just the phones that are ringing ahead of Lohri. “We are making bookings via Instagram as well,” says Deepak Bhatt, whose group is popularly known as Rocky Dholis on social media. “Ghar pe baithe baithe logon ka party ka itna mood ban gaya hai ki hsar koi badi gathering karna chahta hai is tyohar pe is baar. Winter mein Lohri manane ki exciment toh hai hi, but alongside there’s also a demand to call those dholwalas whose videos have gone viral in the past. Humare videos jo viral ho rahe hain, woh dekh kar kayi logon ne humare yahan se dholwalon ki booking kari hai,” adds Bhatt.
Vouching for the cold weather that’s motivating quite a few to organise the bonfire on Lohri, this year, is another city-based dholwala, Vikas. He says: “Phones itne aa rahe hain ki lag ab jaake lag raha hai ki Lohri ka tyohar aane waala hai. Warna pichle saal 13 January kab nikla, pata hi nahi chala. Iss baar log sirf dhol ki baatein kar rahe hain, jaise Covid ke pehle kiya karte the. Bas thodi aur bookings aa jayein, toh humari bhi Lohri achhi ho jayegi.”
Author tweets @KritiKambiri