It was like they had been longing for this moment for centuries. Exactly at 12.44.08 pm, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the first brick for the construction of the Ram Temple on Wednesday, the atmosphere in Ayodhya suddenly turned electric.
Groups of people holding saffron flags came out of their homes in the temple town and its adjoining town of Faizabad and started celebrating on the road. The chant of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ rented the air in the narrow and cramped lanes in Ayodhya. It was heard almost everywhere in the twin towns. People distributed sweets among each other to celebrate the occasion.
The loudspeakers atop the ashrams, temples and shops in the town began blaring the couplets of Ramcharitmanas. The town was filled with the sound of ringing of temple bells and conch shells. Students of numerous ‘Vedic’ schools, being run at the ashrams and mutts, also recited the ‘shlokas’ (Sanskrit verses) hailing the occasion.
‘’It is like a dream come true….I had never imagined that I would be able to witness this moment in my lifetime,’’ said octogenarian Satya Prakash Tripathi, who had sneaked into the temple town with a few youngsters from the neighbouring Basti district across the Saryu river.
Tripathi said that he had lost all hopes that he would be able to see a grand Ram Temple.
‘’We had been waiting for this moment for the past 500 years,’’ said Munni Lal, who runs a tailoring shop near the famous Hanumangarhi temple in Ayodhya.
Elsewhere in the town also, groups of people danced and sang ‘bhajans’ (religious songs). At many places, young boys donned costumes of Lord Rama and his consortium Sita and chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
The loud noise brought the army of monkeys out of their shelters on the trees and to the roofs of the houses. And for a change, the residents of the town were seen offering them sweets and fruits.
‘’We will cherish this moment forever……we will tell the coming generations about it,’’ said 40-year-old Rakesh Gupta, a resident of the town.