Children worship parents on V Day

--Bajrang Dal threat keeps couples off from parks

Bhimatangi school in city

BHUBANESWAR: When the whole world was celebrating the wonder of love on the occasion of the Valentines Day, children in different schools and institutions in city on Friday worshipped their parents to mark the day.

Worshipping of fathers and mothers was encouraged by Yoga Vedanta Samiti of Odisha. The Samiti at its Khandagiri office organised an event where around 800 parents with their children were present. The children worshipped their parents like god and goddesses with traditional ritual by offering flowers.

Later the parents granted blessings wishing their children’s good future. “It was really a wonderful experience to get worshipped by my own child. It is a healthy trend to stop vulgar traditions imported from foreign countries,” said a parent from Unit-8.   

According to Samiti member Brundaban Rath, they have organised the function in 25 schools in the city where around 8000 parents were worshiped by their children. To sensitise the people about the significance of the worshipping of parents, the Samiti distributed 10,000 books.

Meanwhile, couples fearing diktats of the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) didn’t want to choose parks for dating. They often preferred to go any hotel, restaurant or food parks in the city to get respite from ‘moral policing’.

Keeping in view the new plan, the activists conducted raid on small hotels, restaurants, malls and food parks to protest ‘indecent’ celebration of the day. During the raid, 52 Bajrang Dal activists were arrested in Cuttack, while the capital city witnessed peaceful raid.