Navratri Jagratas shifting to daytime during Covid night curfew?

The night curfew and capping of religious gathering in Delhi has led to last minute cancellation or change in timing of religious events such as Jagrans and Mata Ki Chowki.

Jagran/jagrata and Mata ki Chowki singers from Delhi are in a fix after most religious congregations have being cancelled or postponed at the last hour due to the new Covid-19 guidelines, announced right before Navratri. Most say that they have had to incur huge financial losses, and some share that in a few cases jagrans have been shifted to the day time due to night curfew! ‘Kaam zero hai, ‘Jaagran nahin ho rahe hai’, are some of the responses of jagran singers, who are part of bhajan mandlis across Delhi-NCR, since the news of night curfew and capping on religious gatherings to a minimum of 50, has come in.

Jagran and chowki singers from Delhi-NCR share how their scheduled programmes have been either cancelled or shifted to the day time. (Photo: Vishnu Thakur/HT)

A Delhi-based jagrata singer Jyoti Prakash Sharma, who has been singing bhajans for over 20 years, says his scheduled programme has been shifted to the day time. “I mostly perform at atleast four to five programmes at a gap of a day or two, during the entire period of Navratri. This time, after the news of night curfew and new guidelines came in, around three programmes got cancelled. But one of the places, where I had to sing, has been shifted to a day time of 3.30pm. The organisers have discussed to wrap by max by 7pm so that both the musicians and devotees can reach home within time. Ma ka parchar kar rahe hain hum toh; raat ki jagah din me kar lenge to bhi Ma khush hongi hi!”

But this scheme of things isn’t as easy to adjust, say some, since many singers or instrumentalists with the bhajan groups have other jobs or businesses to attend during the day time. “Log pareshan hai (People are hassled),” says Vinod Arora from Maa Bhagwati Sewa Mandal, which has a team of eleven members. Talking about the current scenario, he adds: “Lagta hai virtually karna padega. Jo orchestra rent pe dete hain unka toh kamai ka time hota tha yeh. We’ll either planning to do virtually or shift it to the day time, between 2pm to 5pm. A lot of enquiries are coming in to check if we will perform in the day time, because those who had booked us for chowki in the evenings of Navratri, have already called up to cancel their plan. But the concen is that those of us who are working elsewhere during the day can’t shut shop at 6pm to perform at such events during the day time. Even the devotees who are working will find it difficult to attend a day time Mata ki Chowki.”

Anita Khanna, from Rakesh Khanna and Party based in Mayur Vihar, rues how she had to incur losses all of last year, but now after things started coming back to normal, she feels back to square one. “Bahut programmes cancel ho gaya hain. Chowki ho rahin hain par 6pm to 9pm, and mostly din ke programme bhi 6pm tak khatm hote hain to uske baad ek aur program fatafat karna humesha possible nahi ho pata,” says Khanna, and Vipin Bhalla, a singer from a jagran party based in Geeta Colony, adds that most of his programmes have been postponed to a later date. “Night curfew se saara kaam band ho gaya. Everyone is at home... Humara kaam sab jagran aur chowki jaise dharmik program par hi nirbhar hai. Kaam hi nahin hoga toh.... Jagrans are not possible online. What one experiences live is completely different. It’s been a year fighting this disease, don’t know how will we survive further.” 

Author tweets @Nainaarora8

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