Ram Mandir inauguration: Devotees have 'I was there' moment; disregard PM Modi appeals to celebrate at home

Despite appeals by the prime Minister and the temple trust to celebrate the occasion of Pran Pratishtha at their homes, many devotees landed in Ayodhya, undeterred by security measures and uncertainty regarding stay, to mark their presence on the historic day.

In the early hours of Monday, on the Ram Path, many of these devotees stood on pavements watching the VVIP guests swish past them in their luxury cars and government run electric buses, content with just being in the holy city. Pradeep Kumar Pal, a West Bengal state government employee who came a day earlier, said he wished to be a "witness" to the consecration ceremony since 1992 when he had come to UP as a karsevak. He was stopped at Mughalsarai though. "I will leave after 12:30pm when the ritual ends," Pal said.

A group of devotees from Odisha's Balangir and Koraput districts were dropped off by a bus 60kms before Ayodhya, at Sultanpur, due to obstruction of large vehicles inside the city, on the morning of 21. "So, we walked since morning and reached in the wee hours here," said Bhakto Sahu. "There is no reason, we got a calling and we had to be here on this day," he said.


A group of three youth from Shahjahanpur's Mathara village, with the intent of being in Ayodhya on the consecration ceremony, and a twist to make it a "walking journey", walked for 400 kms to make it on the day. "It is our privilege that we wanted to be here on this day and here we are," said 27-year old Amish Rajput. Rajput said so deep was his devotion to Lord Ram that he wished he was born before 1992 so he could have come to Ayodhya as a karsevak.

If Rajput came from UP as a young devotee, Santosh Shetty, a 28-year old marine researcher from Maharashtra was also one of the young devotees, driven by unswerving faith to Ayodhya.