E-Paper
Tragedy tinges Raksha Bandhan
TULSI MAY never have a worse Raksha Bandhan. The seven-year-old boy waited all day for his sister Rekha to tie a rakhi. But she was dead and so were his father Chhotu Yadav and brother Dayalu.
TULSI MAY never have a worse Raksha Bandhan. The seven-year-old boy waited all day for his sister Rekha to tie a rakhi. But she was dead and so were his father Chhotu Yadav and brother Dayalu.
Fed up with indebtedness and poverty, 32-year-old Chhotu, a farmer, killed himself, a daughter and a son by putting pesticide in the family’s meal.
Tulsi survived and is now out of danger at the emergency ward of the Deen Dayal Hospital. Doctors did not broke the news to him though his three-year-old brother Dayalu lay dead in the same ward.
Chhotu Yadav gave himself and his three children a poison meal when wife had gone to a field to cut grass. Chhotu and Rekha died in the house. Tulsi and Dayalu were rushed to the government hospital for treatment.
Sources in the village said Chotu had taken a loan of Rs 50,000 from a bank around two years ago and was unable to repay it. He had also sold land worth Rs 2 lakh six months ago.
A pall of gloom has descended on the Sarnath area following the tragedy on the festival of Raksha Bandhan.
However, elsewhere, the festival was celebrated with the usual filial bonhomie. Sisters tied rakhis on the wrists of their brothers for prosperity and protection.
Besides sisters, pundits and pujaris also tied the sacred thread to the devotees at different temples and blessed them.
Festive mood prevailed in the city. Rakhi and sweet shops were seen packed with people. Different movie songs depicting importance of Raksha Bandhan were being played at different shops.
Thousands of makeshift shops were set up in different localities, including Lanka, Assi, Durgakund, Bhelupur, Sonarpura, Godowlia, Nai Sarak and Lahuraveer etc.
Wholesale markets of rakhi were also overcrowded with the buyers. Since Varanasi is the biggest market of rakhi, the retail traders from different districts of eastern UP, including Jaunpur, Azamgarh, Ballia, Bhadohi, Mirzapur, Mau and Deoria purchase rakhis from here. Various innovations could be seen in rakhis with embroidery works, sandalwood etc.
A social organisation, Sankalp, celebrated the festival with the orphans at Kashi Seva Samiti in Varanasi and gave them a reason to smile.
