Praying for peace: LoC Ka Raja to leave for Indo-Pak border today

MUMBAI: Large Ganpati workshops in the Lalbaug-Parel belt routinely despatch idols to various parts of the world, including the US, Europe and the Middle East, during Ganeshotsav. Yet, it was a rare occurrence Wednesday when a devotee transported an idol from Kurla to the embattled Line of Control (LoC) along the Indo-Pak border for the festival that begins September 13. On Anant Chaturdashi, the ‘

LoC Ka Raja

’ is immersed in the holy Pulastya river, whose current leads the idol into Pakistani waters.


The devotee,

Kiranbala Isher

, lives in

Poonch

in Jammu & Kashmir where she runs a social service organization and oversees the Shivdurga Bhairav Mandir Trust. Isher Didi, as her entourage calls her, selected Kurla moortikar Vikrant Pandhare to sculpt a replica of the Lalbaugcha Raja for her

pandal

. The family has been hosting the deity since eight years, but since 2016, it has ferried the idol from Mumbai.

“A few years ago, we lived in Ghatkopar when my father worked as general manager of the army canteen store. We moved to Poonch after he retired. My family is closely affiliated with the defence establishment. In fact, the very first year that we hosted the idol from Mumbai, there was a militant attack in Poonch. My nephew, Rajendra Sharma, who worked with the CID, was martyred. He died a hero’s death while saving several civilians,” she says. “We transported the bhandara (food) to the soldiers who fought the 72-hour encounter bravely.”

Since then, jawans and officers of the armed forces began to join celebrations at this pandal. “Puja starts amid the freezing cold at 4am. Women and children sing bhajans at 4pm, while army jawans perform the evening aarti at 7pm. There are scarcely any Ganeshotsav festivities in Poonch other than ours, because we are a minority community in J&K,” says Isher. Often, the chanting of mantras and the aarti is punctuated by the explosion of shells and grenades, says a volunteer.

The group will board the Swaraj Express from Bandra Terminus at 6am on Thursday and reach Jammu at 5pm the next day. The ‘LoC Ka Raja’ will be led the 300km distance to Poonch aboard a truck.


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