1985. True Story.
When I floated the idea “Chalo apun bhi Ravana banake jalate hain”, all my friends – insane friends – were very excited about the idea. In fact, they were very encouraging – idiots! Their responses “Awesome idea”, “Maza aaega”, “Lets do it” … Not one…I tell you, not one gave the sound advise like “No community Dussehera celebrations. Making a Ravana to burn is a bad idea. Just like it’s great to watch the acrobatics in a circus, but to actually stand on the edge and take a leap from a height of 126 feet with burning fire below – totally different thing. Get a professional Ravana maker and do what you are good at – goof around and at best, laugh at ridiculous jokes like ravana .”
Anyways… Our rough estimates showed that we need ~ Rs. 750 to pull off the Ravana Dahan festival. It would buy us crackers, cloth, paint and most importantly Food – I mean Prasad (sweets). Without the sweets no community event is possible – no one will show up! No really. Try it. Be it flag hoisting on Independence or Republic Day, Ganesh Chaturthi or just watching Ravana burn! To get money, we will have to ask for donations from the residents of our building.
2 weeks to Ravan Dahan | Chanda Collection
Ting Tong.
“Uncle, we are celebrating community Ravana. We are here for collecting donation.”
Mr. Sinha was clearly irritated. He said “Why?! Why one more community celebration, all that noise, why!?”
Pin drop silence. “Do you even know why Ravan is burnt?” he asked. “Yes of course”, Gotya started with great confidence, “Ram wanted to avenge Hanuman’s tail burnt by Ravana.”
Gulp! Before I could open my mouth to add anything… Mr. Sinha – “This generation…. Anyway… No Money from me. Get out”. Door was slammed on us. What a fantastic start. All looked at Gotya.. “Hanuman tail fire? Really?” We moved on to the next flat… (that way we are shameless.)
Ting Tong.
Mr. Reddy, who was in his lungi half folded, without any shirt, “What do you want?”.
“Uncle, we are celebrating community Ravana. We are here for collecting donation.”
He said, “I hate this pollution caused by Ravana burning, crackers etc. Why don’t you just hang Ravana to death?”
Ratish sheepishly “Kya uncle, where is the fun in it, no crackers bursting, no fun!”. Our man Gotya adds, “Uncle, hanging Ravana is not possible, he has 10 heads.”
Gulp… Pin Drop Silence. “I am not interested in this community Ravana business. Sorry I will not contribute.” said Mr. Reddy as we saw another door being slammed on our face!
We left. Gotya opened his mouth again “Kitna evil hai ye aadmi, isiko Ravan banate hain!” Gotya, please tu tera mu band rakh yaar! was our prayer! Next flat.
Ting Tong.
Mr. Deshmukh opens the door with a smile. “Hi Kids… I hear you all are attempting community ravana this year. Good”.
“Yes uncle, we are here for donation.”.
“How much?” he asked. “No expectations, Uncle. Whatever you give.” We said
“OK, wait. Here is my contribution. Rs. 10. All the best.”
Dhina Dhin Dha!!! We did a mini celebration dance and moved to the next flat.
Ting Tong.
“Uncle, we are celebrating community Ravana. We are here for collecting donation.”
“Oh Good idea. So, what is the program? Asked Mr. Devakumar. “Uncle, we will make a Ravana, burn it and then prasad.”
“What?! No Ramlila? No orchestra? No talent show? No DJ? No Be… mmm I mean Party…. Then what do you want the money for… rethink your program and come back.” and he politely closed the door. Next flat
“Oh, Next is Mr. Banerjee. We need to have a clear strategy. Let me handle this. I have a plan” said Rakesh. He showed solid confidence – and hence we were worried.
Ting Tong.
“Yes”. “Namaste Uncle. we are celebrating community Ravana. We are here for collecting donation.” “Very Good. How much donation?”. “Uncle, the highest donar will get the honour to become Ram – that means he will set fire to Ravana. Uncle, imagine everybody will be there… Aunties… …, kids and others” We saw the twinkle in Mr. Banerjee’s eye. “Accha, who has given the highest so far?” Rakesh looked back to us and gave a wicked smile. “Mr. Venkatraman has given Rs. 25”. “Accha… you take this Rs. 50 from me. Come and meet me if someone gives more”.
“Surely Uncle, thank you Uncle!” Dhina Dhin Dha….
Ting Tong… Ting Tong… Ting Tong… and after many such, we ended up collecting Rs. 760.
1 week to Ravan Dahan. | Ho j.a.a.e.g.a. Tension Nahi leneka!
After collecting all that money we were doing what we were supposed to do – Play cricket. Watch TV and Have fun! As for making of Ravana, we were convinced we had a lot of time. “Ho j.a.a.e.g.a. Tension Nahi leneka!”
1 Day to Ravan Dahan. | Ravan is born
We have only 1 day left. Our Ravana making checklist sheet read ___________ (exactly, blank!).
Ok, who knows how to make Ravana? Silence. Where do we start? What are things do we need to make a raavan? Pin Drop silence. Now what?
Ravana must be laughing like Ravana (huh! Of course). Images of all the uncles and aunties yelling and laughing (yeah, both at the same time) at us conjured up in our heads. I was secretly hoping for an earthquake that ends the world. Here we were – 1 day from the D-day, without a clue of what could be done and how! And our commitment to the highest donor, the Ram, made our kaam even more tough!
“I have an idea” said Raju. “Let’s just make a simple 2-D Ravana”. 2D? He took a pen paper and drew a sketch. 2 vertical lines. 1 horizontal line at the top of the vertical lines. It looked like a very very tall ‘Pi’ π.
And on top of the Pi, he drew a circle. That’s it. “This is our Ravana”. He concluded. More silence.
“Better idea? Anyone?”. This time, an uneasy, unnerving dead silence. Raju persisted. “We have something. Let’s just begin”. “Yes, let’s do it.” said Gotya. “Yeah”.. Josh went up from zero to 100 in 10 seconds. Raju led the way!
“Get 3 bamboos” announced Raju. “I can manage that. Building painting is going on at Sanchi. There are a lots of bamboos lying around. Lets go”. Babloo said. Babloo was a magician. He was master at the distracting the watchman and getting the job done. He was our key man for many mango plucking adventures. While he worked his magic with the watchman, Vilas and Javed picked up the Bamboos and sneaked from the back of the building. Job done.
We got few more bamboos, cut it and made a strong frame. The body frame was 20 feet tall! I kid you not! What can I say, the team got the longest bamboo available there. Anup got excited seeing the initial 2-D Ravana’s bone structure. He said “Mai Ravan ka mundi (head) banayega.” He was the artist and started working on it.
12 Hours to Ravana Dahan. | Growing Ravana
“Let’s add some muscle and fat to our Ravan” said Kumar. We got some gunni bags and like pro tailors stitched Ravana’s body. We put lots of crushed newspaper under his skin. Our Ravana graduated from 2D to a petit Raavan. Just when we thought, it’s over, it dawned upon us that this paper will burn in 10 seconds. We had put to more wood and cloth into his body. We inserted chopped dry branches and twigs. Kumar went to Chandra Aunty. “Aunty, can you give your clothes?” “What!?” asked Shocked Mrs. Chandra. “I mean old sarees or clothes to stuff our Ravana.” “Aah! Ok. Wait… here are some”. Word spread.
Aunties came with bags full of old clothes and paper! Everybody wanted to contribute (to the in-house raddiwalas). Raju rose and announced “That’s it. No more raddi please”. Ravana had transformed from Petit to obese.
3 Hours to go | Beautiful Ravana
Anup came running with his sketches of Ravana’s face. Totally tragic. He had made a cute face! “Bhai, Raavan hai. Bhayanak Rakshas tha wo. ” said disappointed Raju. Anup reworked. This time he cracked it. He made 10 faces for the 10 heads. Totally different faces – No resemblance whatsoever! Plus, each one had a different expression. Angry, Frustration, Sad, Happy…. We decided to go with only one head. No 10 heads. Infact, in 1972, AIRMA – All India Ravan Makers Association – had made an attempt to discredit the idea that Ravan had 10 heads.
It was time to insert all the fireworks into Ravanas body. Everyone participated in inserting the bombs all over his body and especially his head. Deshmukh uncle was passing by. “Ye kya hai?” … “Uncle, Raavan hai”. “Huh… Really!?… Hmm… (That silence was killing us)… ScareCrow lag raha hai”. Our hearts crashed. … But we continued (Majboori, you see). We put face to his head. We cut and stitched his dress using colourful sarees. His head was installed on top of his shoulders. Our Ravana was lying peacefully and looking good. All mothers feel her son is the best in the world. I truly understood it for the 1st time.
60 mins to Ravan Dahan. | Gira hua Insaan Raakshas
Mission Accomplished. Or Not. We tried to lift the 20 Feet Ravana… but it was heavy. How are we going to make him stand?! Can we get a big construction crane to get this humongous creature up. No. We have 60 mins only. Also, it was getting dark. We called the older boys. “Maa Kasam… kitna bada Raavna banaya tumlog” blurted Raj. OK, first let’s take it to the ground. 15 of us lifted Ravana and kept him at the centre of the ground. I developed special respect for all the weightlifters that day.
Now what?! Raj started to tie the tug of war rope on Ravana’s neck. It seemed like Raj had an idea. “A team of 10 will pull him from the front. Dig 2 big holes here for his legs. A team of 6 will support the Ravan from the back with bamboos” said Raj. We just followed his instructions. And we began. We started pulling him up. His leg started sliding ahead. “Arey uska feet to hole mein daba” shouted Raj. Both Feet were held in the hole. Front-end team started to pull further, apna Ravana jaag raha tha…. 5 degree, 15 Degree.. 20 degree, 30 degree, 45 degree… Yay! The plan was succeeding. Each team did their job perfectly and now we had the raavan at almost 85 Degree…. WOW that looked massive. And we were almost there. BUT yet we were very far. We could not leave him, else Ravana would fall down crushing a few kids. Our heart sank – again. F@#$. Now what? “Lets burn him while he lying on the floor. Kya farak padta hai”. Gotya said “Nahi re… paap lagega”.
20 Mins to Ravan Dahan | Proud Parents (of Ravan)
Panic. Scared. Nervous. All looked at Raj. He looked back with no clue as to what to do. There was a big slide in the ground where kids played. We looked at it and thought this slide can support Ravana. Let Ravana lean on it. It was a solid idea. We pushed him back towards the slide and let him lean at an angle of 87 degrees. We tied him to the slide. Ravana was standing on his own two legs. Dhina Dhin Dha… Phew! We felt like proud parents!
5 Mins to Raavan Dahan | Ravana Jalne wala hai, Niche Aao
“Ravana Jalne wala hai, Niche Aao, Niche Aao”, “Ravana Jalne wala hai, Niche Aao, Niche Aao” Kids started shouting. The excitement was huge given that this was happening for the 1st time in our building. People started pouring in. They were clearly astounded by the size and look of our Ravana. Mr. Banerjee (psst. our highest donor) was invited the light the Ravana.
0 mins to Raavan Dahan | Prasad kidhar hai?
On fire! Ravan was burning. All the bombs made tremendous noise. Kids and parents loved what they saw. Our community was celebrating Ravana festival together. Mr. Desai said “this was the tallest Ravana in the area. And he looked so good… err dangerous and huge. Well done boys.” And sweet distribution followed.
All the slamming doors, criticism, suggestions, contributions in multiple ways totally made it worth the time and energy. While the effort to create was more than to burn it down in a few minutes, the joy of having done something like this has been magnificent.
It was, and continues to be one of the best experiences ever!
