By Dipchand Bihari
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Jan 24: Students of Bhima Bhoi School for Blind organised a ‘Bhajan Samaroh’ on their school premises in order to seek the blessings of the Goddess of learning, wisdom and knowledge on the occasion of Saraswati Puja, Saturday.
Around 30 students participated in the meet and performed devotional songs to mark the occasion. “We believe Goddess Saraswati will bestow us with more knowledge to expel the darkness. We don’t regret not being able to see, but we pray that Saraswati blesses us with enough strength to take on this competitive world,” said Bhagaban Panda, a student.
Earlier, the students formed a puja committee consisting of 15 members. These students took the initiative to organise the programme at their school premises. “We had started our preparations three days before the Puja. It was tough to go out and purchase all the puja commodities but it was a good experience,” said Nikhil Kumar Gochhayat, secretary of the committee.
“We collected around Rs 15,000 for organising the puja from both the students of the hostel as well as from our teachers. Around Rs 7,000 was invested in decorating the puja mandap, while the rest was spent in preparing a feast for the students as well as for the visitors,” Nikhil added.
Meanwhile, the students of Bipin Bihari Choudhary School for Deaf prepared an idol of Goddess Saraswati by themselves and organised a prayer ceremony. They were so full of excitement ahead of the ceremony that they were unable to contain themselves.
“They stayed awake through the night and were busy decorating the puja mandap and making the idol. We were on standby but they did everything by themselves and didn’t seek our help. They even collected the money themselves and organised the puja. All we did was organise a big feast for them,” said a beaming Puspanjali Mohapatra, headmistress of the school.
