Puri: The pandemic restrictions have left the devotees of Lord Jagannath a disappointed lot this year. They won’t be allowed to attend the Snana Yatra (divine bath) of the sibling deities nor get to see the Lord attired in Hati Besha (elephant attire) in Puri.
As a consolation for the devotees, an engineering student in Puri, Biswajit Nayak, has carved the Hati Besha of Lord Jagannath with ice-cream sticks.
Talking to Odisha Bytes, Biswajit said thousands of devotees come to Puri to attend the Snana Purnima rituals and see the Lord attired in Hati Besha. But as they will not get to see this rare attire of the Lord for two consecutive years due to the pandemic, he has recreated it with ice-cream sticks.
Biswajit informed he has used 1,475 ice-cream sticks for his innovative carving. “It is 30 inches in height and 26 inches wide. It took me 15 days to complete it,” he said.
“I pray to Lord Jagannath to make the world free from Coronavirus and allow his devotees to get darshan at the earliest,” he added.
