Calcutta, July 2: In the golden jubilee year of its foundation, Iskcon will take out its Rath yatra procession along the same route that it followed in 2015. Last year, the usual Rath and Ultarath routes had been swapped.
On July 6, the idols will be carried out to the chariots in Pahandi Vijay ceremony from 8am. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to inaugurate the Rath yatra around 11am. With her will be mayor Sovan Chatterjee. Union tourism minister Kapil Mishra has also been invited. Dona Ganguly will perform.
The chariots will start trundling from the Albert Road temple and get pulled along Hungerford Street, Minto Park, Sarat Bose Road, Hazra Road, Hazra crossing, SP Mukherjee Road, Asutosh Mukherjee Road, Exide crossing, Chowringhee, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Outram Road to reach Brigade Parade Ground where the deities will stay till July 13.
"There will be a bigger congregation of devotees from across the world because of our golden jubilee," said Iskcon, Calcutta, general manager Radharaman Das, adding how Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada had set sail from the Kidderpore dock in 1965 with two trunks of The Gita, translated in English, and founded Iskcon the next year.
Everyday from 4pm to 9pm, there will be darshan of Lord Jagannath - the Sona Vesh on July 10 deserves mention as only on this day is the idol fitted with gold-plated arms and legs - prasaddistribution and cultural programmes. Russian devotees will stage a show on July 7. On July 9, a debate will take place on Vedic education versus modern education. Dona Ganguly will perform in the evening. The highlights of July 10 are a play by students of IIT Kharagpur and a shadow dance drama. An American devotee will take the stage with his band Bhaktivedanta on July 11.
An "empowerment contest" will be kicked off based on Prabhupada's biography A Home for Whole World. The book carries lessons on dealing with stress and other problems. The winners and runners-up will get Rs 1 lakh, Rs 50,000 and Rs 25,000 respectively. Registrations will be accepted at the ground.
Ultarath on July 14 will start at noon. The route will be Jawaharlal Nehru Road, SN Banerjee Road, CIT Road, Suhrawardy Avenue, Shakespeare Sarani, Hungerford Street and back to Albert Road.
