Chaityabhoomi readies to welcome thousands

The imminent arrival of the devout followers did not faze Shivram, who at the ripe age of 70, made his first trip to the city. "My nephews go to Mumbai every year for Ambedkarji's darshan. They ask me to accompany them. Being a firm believer in his principles, I decided to go this year," he said. Shivram is a furniture-maker from Tindwara village in Uttar Pradesh's Banda district. He said he was impressed with the BMC arrangements inside the park. He seemed to have no qualms with sleeping in the open. "Next year, I will bring my wife and daughters. We do not believe in castes, but they must experience this," he said.

The long walk

"It was tempting to run straight into Dadar chowpatty as soon as we arrived," said Shubham Kakade (19), examining the sores on the soles of his feet. "But we joined the queue to Chaityabhoomi and rushed into the water to cool down only after darshan," he added.

Kakade and nine other boys walked all the way from Buddha Nagar in Solapur to Mumbai. They arrived here at 2 pm on Wednesday, 18 days after they set out. For the fifth and final year, they covered 407 km of rough, uneven terrain, stopping at villages overnight, to reach Dadar.

"Narsingh, my father, was the first from our locality to walk to Dadar every year. He inspired us to follow him. We aren't disappointed that our turn is now over. Other boys will set off on the same journey," said Pramod Kamble.

Business sense

Producers of the recently released film Shudra: The Rising seem to be cashing in on Ambedkar's death anniversary. They flooded the stalls near Chaityabhoomi with the film's DVDs. The DVDs are priced at Rs 200. A stall at Dadar chowpatty reported that it sold nearly 300 DVDs by 6 pm on Wednesday. "I think all 500 copies will be sold by the end of the day. Many more will be here on Thursday, but we are yet to decide how much to stock," said Sneha, who manages a stall.

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