Patna'ites Celebrate New Year with Added Zeal
Patna: January 1, 2008
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Patna'ites Celebrate New Year
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Photo by Shashi Uttam |
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Patna's Sanjay Gandhi Botanical and Zoological Garden on Tuesday witnessed record crowd on the New Year's Day despite bone-chilling temperature as thousands of people of all ages, bundled up in winter clothes and hoping to make the most of the bright sun in the sky, hustled to find suitable spots to spend a day filled with food and fun with their friends and families.
Zoo officials said Monday beat the old record of 1970 when so many visitors chose to come to the facility on one single day.
With temperature looming in low teens, the crowd in the morning was sparse at best with only the most gung-ho among the revelers being seen at the ticket counters indicating a less than normal crowd on the New Year's Day. However, by noon as the temperature warmed up a few degrees more, the crowd started to swell and by 1:30 pm, the authorities had to open gates on both sides to accommodate the visitors.
Children were seen having fun with a ride on the toy train and the appearance of Santa Clause further added to the enjoyment of the young ones who were seen singing and dancing with their fellow revelers.
Outside the zoo at the main entrance, the scene was that of a carnival where vendors selling from chaat and dosa to toys and other fancy items were raking in money like there was no tomorrow.
At Patna Museum ground also, people were seen celebrating the New Year's Day with their loved ones. Since cooking is not allowed within the museum premises, pre-cooked food and a host of vendors outside the main gate whet the appetite of the picnic-goers.
Interestingly, this year, more than ever before, heavy crowd was witnessed at the Mahavir Temple outside Patna Junction where men, women, and children stood in line for hours to get a glimpse of the Hanuman statue.
Temple officials estimated over 2 lakh people who visited the facility on the first day of the year that fell on a Tuesday, an auspicious day for Hanuman devotees who also purchased over 6,000 kilograms of the traditional 'laddoos' in the form of 'prasad'.
With dozens of security officials to manage the crowd and the traffic, the Temple committee chairperson Acharya Kishore Kunal himself made sure the devotees did not have any inconvenience and the lost children were reunited with their parents or guardians.
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