This past weekend residents of Dwarka and surrounding colonies were in for a very pleasant surprise, they were part of a unique experience, a first of its kind Swadeshi Mela.
Dwarka has a distinction of having many melas during this festive period. So when they saw hoardings of another mela being organized so close to Diwali and in the midst of other regular melas the initial reaction was that it’ll be just another mela with commercial interest, but as the publicity grew on radio, through hoardings and social media, family contact program and school contact program, they realized that it is something else….. a mela with a message and a cause.
On Saturday the 18th it was a moment of pride and happiness for the Swadeshi Mela Aayojan Toli when they saw people pouring in early evening and enjoying everything on offer. The crowd also experienced the difference from the moment they reached the venue, a very well organized and trained team to handle the parking, traffic and security with vigilant eyes of volunteers of ‘Civil Defence’ at the entrance was in place. The scene inside was tempting, there were rides and game stalls for kids and adults, Kathputali show, there was a dedicated food corner serving mouth watering Indian delicacies. And the biggest draw was the stalls selling only Swadeshi products. From home décor to clothes, from herbal beauty products to herbal medicines, from earthen kitchen ware to literature, from painting to stoneware… it was like being in a different place and different era. On the following day of 19th Oct the number of visitors grew to double simply on the positive spread of word of mouth.
It wasn’t all about that, there were blood donation camp and willing donors qued up to donate blood, eye donation pledge forms were being filled up at ‘Saksham’ stall and books were being picked up at fast pace at ‘Suruchi Prakashan’ stall as well. The Swadeshi Picture Exhibition’ was the talking point amongst the visitors.
During all this shopping, eating and having rides there were spell binding cultural performances on stage on both days from students of well known music and dance academy, a ‘Kavi Sammelan’ with humor filled messaging and thought provoking rhymes by likes of Sh. Gajendera Solanki, Sh. Mahendera Sharma as well as Prof. Dayal Singh and Sh. Dheeraj (both visually challenged). There were skits promoting the message of ‘Swadeshi’ by team of students, a breathtaking violin performance by well known violinist Sh. R Shridhar. The demonstration of Yoga with dance was marvelous. Apart from Luckey Draw events on both days, the ladies dressed with ‘Bharatiy’ clothing were also felicitated with prizes. It was concluded by music performances by well known singers singing patriotic songs. All on stage acts were executed with direct, indirect and subtle messaging promoting Swadeshi.
The mela was graced by the presence of Prant and Akhil Bhartiya level prominent office bearers of of Swadeshi Jagran Manch shri Satish ji kshetriya sangathak, Shri Saroj Mitra akhil bhartiya sah-sanyojak, Shri Ashwani Mahajan akhil bhartiya sah-sanyojak, shri Deepak Sharma ‘Pardip’ kshetriya sah-sanyojak, shri Kamaljeet ji sangathak delhi-haryana, shri Govind Ram sanyojak Delhi, shri Sushil Panchal sah- sanyojak Delhi, shri Kamal Tiwari sah- sanyojak Delhi , presence of Dr. Bindeshwari Pathak of Sulabh International, Prof. Sushma Yadav Pro VC IGNOU, Sh. Parvesh Verma MP, MLAs, Councilors of nearby constituencies, and many other dignitaries as well as the teams of all social organizations active in Dwarka and surrounding areasve.
All in all it was a hugely successful mela visited by more than 20000 people in the 2 days that it was held for, the offering was Swadeshi and unique, the stage performances were educative and entertaining, and the biggest success of it all was that everybody went home more aware, more Swadeshi and more connected to the cause being promoted by Swadeshi Jagran Manch. More than this the premises was thoroughly cleaned by the volunteers of Swadeshi Jagran manch for which the management of CCRT Dwarka was very much surprised. The excitement is still in the air and people are waiting for the next one already.