‘Divine intervention’: How a temple event saved many workers’ lives

Tonk Kalan (Dewas): When Bina Bai, 30, decided not to go to work on Thursday morning, she had no particular reason beyond faith. Instead of heading to the firecracker packaging factory in Tonk Kalan as she did most mornings, she dressed up early and walked the short distance to Kalma village for the final day of the consecration (Pran Pratishtha) ceremony at the newly built Shri Ram Darbar temple.

Barely an hour later, a massive explosion tore through that same factory along the Agra-Mumbai national highway.

The blast killed three workers and left at least 25 others injured, several of them critically. But as smoke rose over the site and word of deaths began reaching the crowd of devotees gathered barely 500 metres away, Bina Bai sat frozen among hundreds of fellow worshippers — quietly processing what her morning decision may have meant for her life.

“Everyone from our village had planned to come for the ceremony today,” she said. “If we had gone to work instead, many more people from here would have died.”

The sentiment was shared by many women at the temple on Thursday morning. Neha Patel, 22, and her mother Soram Bai Patel, 55, had actually gone to the factory first, putting in nearly three hours of work before leaving midway to attend the programme.

“I don’t know what would have happened if we had stayed there,” Neha said. “We only left because of the ceremony. It feels like God saved us.”

Like dozens of women from Kalma and surrounding villages, the Patels worked at the unit as daily wage labourers earning Rs 250 a day. According to workers, the factory employed between 300 and 400 people, including a large number of women from nearby areas, primarily for packaging work. Workers handling chemical-related tasks had been brought in from outside.

The coincidence of the temple ceremony and the explosion drew an immediate, sobering calculation from villagers — how many more could have been inside when the blast went off.

Balbeer Singh Rana, a member of the temple’s organising committee, said nearly 100 to 150 people connected to the factory were present at the temple at the time of the explosion. “Had they all been at work at that moment, the tragedy could have been much bigger,” he said. “People here truly believe their lives were spared because they were here today.”

The five-day yagya and consecration ceremony had been a significant community effort. The temple, spread across nearly four bighas and built at an estimated cost of Rs 1 crore, was constructed through donations collected from farmers, labourers and villagers from Kalma, Tonk and surrounding areas. It houses idols of Lord Ram, Lord Hanuman, Lord Mahadev, Guru Vashishth and Maharishi Valmiki.

But the celebrations came to an abrupt halt as news of the blast spread through the crowd. Several women broke down on learning that relatives and co-workers may still be trapped inside the factory. The shobha yatra was stopped immediately.

Dala Bai, 45, who had been waiting days for the final ceremony, captured the mood simply. “Nobody imagined such a tragedy would happen at the same time,” she said.

Organisers and villagers later offered prayers for those killed and for the recovery of the injured.