Tradition, colour mark Dasami

Hyderabad: The Navaratri celebrations concluded with grand Vijayadasami celebrations across the city, as people performed their festive rituals, ranging from taking blessings of elders, decorating shops, breaking pumpkins to bring good luck, and performing homams.

A hotspot of festivities was the Sri Laxminarayana Swamy temple near Chatrinaka on Gowlipura Road, where women donned colourful traditional garments and took part in Bathukamma celebrations.

Sunkari Shailaja, one of the participants, said: “A large number of women folk participated in the celebrations and immersed the Bathukamma in the Bathukamma Bawli. Later, we participated in Swamyvari rathaseva (chariot procession).”

Bengalis came together for the Pujo celebrations organised by the Hyderabad Bangalee Samity, which is among the oldest and largest such organisations in south India.

Women of the community came together, all donning traditional red-and-white attires.

Saachi Das, who works as a project manager with an IT firm, said, “Vijayadasami is a significant day, which means farewell. Women participated in Sindoor Utsav ritual on this day.”

Shila Mithra, another Bengali, said: “In the evening, we held the procession. Before that, we took the blessing of the Goddess, which is most important.”

Sonali Roy Chowdary, who was celebrating the festival in India after eight years, said, “Hyderabad gives the (proper) feel and also an exotic experience of the celebrations.”

Later in the day, people flocked to the Exhibition Grounds in Nampally to take in cultural programmes and the burning of the Ravana effigy, organised by the Rajasthani Samithi.

A ‘Ravana Dahanam’ event was also organised at the Durga temple in Basheerbagh, where hundreds gathered to view the burning of the effigy, as well as a firecracker display.