A feat to remember: 19,000 volunteers, 50,000 people make deepotsav a grand show in Ayodhya

AYODHYA: Ayodhya on Sunday evening created another record by lighting up 15.76 lakh diyas together at Ram Ki Paidi on the banks of the Saryu. A total of 19,000 volunteers deployed to make the event successful spread out a total of 17 lakh earthen lamps across 37 ghats of Ram Ki Paidi in the temple city.
However, final figures, as mandated by the Guinness Book of World Records, only included diyas that remained lit for five minutes or more. Besides, all the diyas had to be lit within the mandated 40 minutes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi later handed over the certificate of the new achievement issued by the Guinness Book of World Records to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Around 50,000 people were present at the ghats when the record was created, and the count kept increasing till late evening.

All the entry points and access routes to the Paidi were heavily guarded as Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the event as the chief guest. However, thousands of families who had gathered at Nayaghat started arriving at Paidi after Modi along with Governor Anandiben Patel and CM Yogi Adityanath left the venue.
Entry of only pass holders was allowed at all the locations where Prime Minister Narendra Modi presided over the ceremonies. The whistle to start lighting up the ghats was blown at 5:15pm after which the volunteers took 40 more minutes to do their job and started retreating later.

Rishi Nath from the Guinness Book of Records, the adjudicator assigned the responsibility to count the diyas, was noting down the proceedings.
"We are going to count how many lamps remained lit for five minutes. Drones have been put up to record the proceedings and we are going to examine it before declaring the final count," Nath had said earlier.
The crowd and volunteers kept cheering 'Jai Shree Ram' repeatedly through the evening. But they had also reserved energy to welcome PM Modi and at 6:45pm, the entire crowd began the 'Modi, Modi, Modi' chant, which lasted for several minutes.
Post the PM's speech, the 3D holographic projection show began. Important episodes from the Ramayana were screened over the temples along the Paidi and the crowd expressed their jubilance over the final victory of Lord Ram over Ravana and his Lanka.
The Uttar Pradesh government also paid tribute to Lata Mangeshkar at the end of the show as Ram bhajans sung by her played in the background. The crowd was in for a special treat towards the end with a bright and colourful laser show covering the skies.
To show their gratitude to PM Modi, the Yogi Adityanath government ensured the event ended with a bang. Fireworks lasting more than 10 minutes were the last event of the celebrations. Many who were getting up to leave were left spellbound by the fireworks in the skies.
Kunal Verma, who had come from Gorakhpur Sadar with his friends to attend the event, said, "We had got passes to attend the Deepotsav through our uncle. It was my first visit to the event. I have never seen such fireworks, laser or holographic shows in my life. I had seen such events on the television screen thus far."