Banarpal: Every year, he watches his labour of love go up in flames, and each time he is filled with pride – for a job well done.
Meet Rakesh Majhi, a 26-year-old diploma engineer. For the past seven years, the effigies of Ravana that have been burnt at Gotamara village under this block in Angul district during Dussehra have had his signature.
Asked how and when he realised that he should try his hand at making Ravana’s effigy, laced with crackers, he said, “Until seven years ago, an artisan had been coming to our village during Dussehra to build Ravan’s effigy. Curiosity grew in me to see the making of such a giant effigy. It was when I was observing the artisan making the effigy and laying crackers that it came to me that I can also build it.”
Since then, there has been no looking back for Rakesh.
Rakesh’s Ravana effigy is made of bamboo strips, plain paper, jari paper of different colours and cement. His Ravana stands 20 to 30 feet high. He uses cement for making Ravana’s prime head and bamboo strips, jari paper and plain paper for the rest of the structure.
Making Ravana’s effigy with crackers is not a child’s game. A minor mistake could end up in a mishap, turning the joyous mood to tragedy as thousands of people, most of them being children, throng the Dusshera ground to witness Ravana’s demise, he says.
He takes great care in placing crackers in the effigy. With minute precision, he divides the structure into several parts and selects those where the light producing crackers would go and where only sound producing crackers would be placed.
“The most vital part of making the effigy is fixing the gun powder where the arrow of Lord Ram hits and the fire then spreads to the entire structure, sparing no part,” he adds.
“If Ram shoots his arrow, and it hits the effigy, but the fire fails to reach the top, the people’s long wait to see Ravan Podi Utsav will go up in smoke,” he says.
“I have been making Ravana effigies since the last seven years, but, touch wood, I have never faced such a disgrace,” proudly says Rakesh. “I feel proud when it goes off well,” he says.
It is his love for his work that gets him orders from nearby areas as well. Besides his own village, he also visits areas like Hindol, Dudurkote, Angul, Talcher and Nalco to make the ten-headed demon’s effigy during Dusshera.
This apart, he takes orders for designing and erecting puja pandals of various committees.
His honesty, friendly behaviour and engineering skills make a great difference in bringing him success.
PNN