22 January, 2024. Save The Date.

Rama’s return to Ayodhya. It’s a defining moment for our civilisation.

In this part of the world, Dear Reader, we don’t have ‘once upon a time-s’, but cycles of the same epic playing out again and again. Each time it’s a new story. Each time it’s the same story. 

In the version of our favourite epic you and I are in, Rama is returning to Ayodhya on 22 January 2024.

The date is final and official. Office bearers of the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teertha Kshetra today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his official residence in New Delhi and extended a formal invitation for the prana pratishtha (consecration) ceremony of the vigraha (idol) of Shri Rama Lalla on that date. In fact, the consecration will be performed by the PM himself.

Epics are epic because there is a part in them that it is eternal. It is this part, Dear Reader, which speaks to us when we engage with them. It is this part which elevates us when we identify with some episode or character in the epic.

On the coming 22 January, we would all be characters in the epic of Rama. Our dialogues would be given by Valmiki, Tulsi, Kamba, Krittivasa, or even Ramanand Sagar or Yugo Sako, depending on whose lines we are most comfortable with, but we would be a part of the story alright.

To better appreciate the importance of the event in the history of India, my senior colleague Aravindan Neelakandan has embarked on a weekly series on the Ayodhya movement. Here is the first episode.

Do let us know what you think of it, and what other topics related to the history of the Rama Janmabhoomi movement would you like to read about.

Until next time,

Arush Tandon