3,000 women tie ‘rakhis’ to their brothers in jail

This was one of my first stories for the Hindustan Times – Bhopal Edition, in August 2001. This piece happened when a fellow fotog in Bhopal told me during our daily morning discussion that the jail will be a good place to visit to witness and take unusual images of the Rakshabandhan celebrations. This triggered my inquisitiveness and I went along with him just to shoot pictures but only to end up with a good human interest story. The story was published in the Hindustan Times – Bhopal Live pages on the 12th of August 2001. I followed it up in 2002 too, with a similar theme but with a difference. The link to that story is given below.

http://shivselvan.blogspot.com/2009/06/love-binds-within-prison-walls.html

It was a rare happy moment for the central Jail inmates on the outskirts of the City today. And an air of festivity pervaded the environs of the jail. The occasion was the festival of Rakshabandhan.
More than 3,000 women from all over the State had lined up outside the gates with rakhis in hand and love for their brothers in their hearts. The social status of the brothers hardly seemed to have had any effect on their sisterly love.
A more emotional scene was inside the jail as love transcended religion and the Muslim inmates of the jail were tied rakhis by the sisters of Hindu inmates thus making it a unique celebration of communal harmony with in the four walls of the prison.
The scene was totally emotion-choked for the jail inmates as well as the jail authorities as they watched sisters weeping and hugging their brothers before performing the traditional ‘bhai pooja’, and tying the rakhis.
The jail authorities, like every year, had made arrangements for the visiting family members by laying down rows of mats for performing the traditional rakhi tying ritual, followed by a hearty home made meal. The walls of the jails were choc a bloc with color papers and banners, which were put up by the inmates to welcome their sisters on this annual occasion.
Inmates who had no visitors were moved with tears were rakhis were tied on their fellow inmates.
The women inmates were also given the opportunity to participate on the joyous occasion with rakhis given by the jail staff to tie to the visiting brothers. One of the women inmates said that she is very happy today to see her brother who did not visit her for the past three years.

Some of the male inmates wept with joy on seeing their young children, saying that they had a waited eagerly for one year to see their children’s growth.
Rampyare an inmate said that he was so happy on seeing his three-year-old daughter talk to him of various things that she had been doing along with her mother and grandfather back in the village.
Various lady visitors belonging to the Muslim community wept with joy on seeing the sisters and relatives of Hindu inmates tie rakhis of their husband’s wrists.
Visiting relatives were given 15 minutes to meet their brothers, with each batch of 50 being allowed at one time inside the jail premises, said the jailer Purshotam Somkuwar, adding that they had to be very careful that no untoward incident occurred.
This anxiety of the jail authorities to avoid any untoward incident went misplaced as many misdemeanors were farthest from the minds of inmates today. All they had in mind was to enjoy the 15 minutes to the maximum with their relatives.
After all the relatives had left their brothers back within the four walls of the prison the inmates were thoroughly being frisked, their tiffin boxes and other pooja items checked before being handed back to them.
For at last today the sisters had lined up the jail premises to see their brothers rather than the condemned criminals.