The festival season is
upon us. Diwali the
festival of lights will be celebrated with much gusto this week. Everyone will
come together to enjoy the day and the season. It has been a very bad year
generally thanks to the virus. But this festive season celebrated with caution
will help people release all that pent up energy. Some people have gone out of
their way to say something that people will remember. In these times when the
atmosphere has been vitiated by interested parties the initiative taken by
Rupesh Naik is certainly commendable. Since 2008, he along with friends who are
based at Portais near Santacruz mark Diwali and Christmas with possibly the
biggest lamp and star in the state.
Like everything it started off small. In
2008, Rupesh gave a contract to a person to make a star and it was done.
However he felt it would be better if he along with friends in Fontainhas could
come together to make the lamp for Diwali and the star for Christmas. In this
day and age size matters, Rupesh started off small but then increased the size
and is today making lamps that are 50 feet high and weighing as much as 600
kilos. Made of an iron grid with paper, he and his group of boys work for
fifteen odd days only at night on the road to prepare these magnificent looking
structures. The boys who come from various religions work in unison with
rancor. Rupesh said making them was part of the battle. All this costs money.
Rupesh, who is the Chief Chef at the Military Camp in Altinho, looks around for
sponsors. He says people are more than willing to help with money but he does
not like going back to the same people for financial assistance. He said “There
is this general tendency to be suspicious when people come around asking for
money. They feel it is being used for one’s personal benefit. Sometimes when we
are short of money, I dip into my savings and cover the costs.”
A man who professes his faith in various religions, he smiled
and said it was without a doubt someone up there who was ensuring he was able
to achieve his dream every year. Rupesh said every year, people all over the
country would do something grand to mark a festival and in Goa people would
prepare a Narkasur. He wanted to do something that would become famous all over
the state and then later the country. Rupesh said the motivation to create the
star for Christmas came from the simple fact that there were Christians in the
area and it was important to mark what was important to them.
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As a civilian employed in the armed forces, his employers are
not aware of his activities because he had kept it to himself but he said they
would be very appreciative if they did learn about it all. He is entitled to a
month of leave which is taken around Diwali and Christmas. The lamp will go up
on Nov 2 and will stay up for fifteen days and Christmas will go up a few days
before the 25th and will come down after Epiphany.
Rupesh
smiled and said he was taken care of very well by everyone in his life and he
hoped to continue doing this for a very long time.
