If anyone wants to witness the grandeur of divine Ganga Arati without visiting the holy Benaras or Haridwar then look no further, it available right here in West Bengal and that too on the opposite side banks of Ganga river overlooking the Millenium Park in Kolkata.
Name of the Place:
Ramkrishnapur Ghat
District:
Howrah, West Bengal
Google Plus Code:
H8CP+M8 Howrah, West Bengal
Otherwise just type "Ramkrishnapur Ghat" on google map and the location would be found at ease.
Ganga Arati
This is a ritual of offering prayer to the River Goddess Ganga as a sign of expressing gratitude and also upholding her as the Ma (mother) in significance of the countless utility the river offers to the life of millions. While it is more popular in cities like Haridwar or Benaras, the one that you will witness at the Ramkrishnapur Ghat of Howrah is no less than any grand experience. This happens every Saturday and Sunday evening, we went there on Sunday 13th October.
The Journey
The place is around 15 Km from my home at Dhakuria, Kolkata and one can reach there conveniently by following google maps diligently. The car can be temporarily parked just in front of the ghat if you have a chauffeur or otherwise the road being one-way if you go ahead around the corner just ahead from the Ghat the road takes a right turn and before it meets the main road again the left side of this road can be used for parking in front of multiple small scale factories that are usually closed in the evening of Weekends.
The Event
We reached the place following Google Maps around 5 pm and the place was not that crowded. The Ghat is divided into two parts, on the left the stepped ghat for getting down to the river properly with images of Gods and Goddesses ascribed on each wall of the hall just overlooking the steps. Cleanliness is average with people bathing, doing evening chants or even like us topping up our home supplies of holy water.
To the right we have the ghat sloping down to the river with 5 decorated podiums created for the priests to stand on and perform the rituals of Ganga Arati. There were red carpets put on the one and single big sized step created for allowing people to sit down and watch the rituals and it extends for some more feet onto the slope for others to sit on the ground on top of the carpet. There were not many so we found a comfortable place and stationed ourselves.
One can behold the beautiful Kolkata city skyline on the opposite side of the river.
At 5-10 pm they started playing recorded devotional tracks in the sound system and slowly crowd, mostly locals, started gathering. We took one video of the surrounding area from the ghat on the left.
Around 6 pm a group of singers boarded an elevated floor on the left ghat and started a concert with popular devotional narrations and songs cheered up the crowd in warming them up for the next 1 hour before the actual rituals could start. This group was actually doing a great job, sounded much alike Anup Jalota.
Another video shot around this time with the concert in motion.
It was dark by then and a couple of bright halogens lit up the entire place and by 6-45 pm I could sense that not only are all seating places tightly occupied but now people are literally standing behind us who could not find a place to sit down.
Sharp at 6-55 PM five priests, dressed in traditional attire, approached the podiums and performed initial rituals before eventually boarding them.
The Arati started right at 7pm and for the next 40 mins it was an experience to behold with several rounds of prayers being offered, with various kinds of aids from moving lighted brass lamps (Arati Diyas) of various types in clockwise motion to swaying Chamars.
Sometimes they faced the river and sometimes towards the crowd, the moment people kept waiting to fire their shutters. Even one Diya the crowd was asked to light up for the Arati, there was absolute overwhelming enthusiasm especially the ladies grabbing the candles to light up all the wicks. And the crowd in full swing of the hour clapping and singing and swaying to match the tune of the air elevated the experience.
Another video shot during this time
By 7-40 pm we stood up and started for our car as the Arati was almost finished and we wanted to avoid the rush at the end. It was an evening well spent in a long time in a different way. A must recommend event to witness on the weekends and if someone can book a boat from the Kolkata / opposite banks and witness floating right on the river then an even better view can be obtained, may be the ambiance may be missed to an extent. A final word, please forgive for the mobile pics, am no creative photographer