Gangtok: Exactly 10 days after the Vikram lander went silent, Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will fly over its landing site and attempt to take pictures of the lander in the hopes of determining the spacecraft’s fate on Tuesday.
While it’s going to be a crucial few hours for India’s moon mission, a local taxi drivers’ association in Gangtok — the capital of Sikkim — has come out with a unique pandal themed around Chandrayaan-2 to mark Vishwakarma Puja on Wednesday.
The ‘ISRO’ pandal has caught everyone’s attention — so much so that despite heavy rainfall, devotees were seen visiting the pandal in large numbers on Tuesday.
Vishwakarma Puja or Jayanti is a day of celebration for Vishwakarma, a Hindu god, the divine architect. He is considered as swayambhu and creator of the world.
While speaking with EastMojo, Sikkim Local Taxi Drivers’ Association president Lakpa Sherpa said that their association has been setting up such unique pandals in the past and have gained popularity for their creativity.
“We chose ISRO theme this year to pay respect to the nation’s latest space mission Chandrayaan-2,” said Sherpa.
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He further mentioned that it took almost 10 days to set up the pandal and a good amount of workers.
“We had stopped setting up pandals for three years and we were doing social work and giving donations to the needy organisations here on this day. However, due to the drivers and local public demand we decided to come up with the pandal again this year,” added Sherpa.
He further added the importance of this day for the workers especially the drivers and ones working in the factories where they offer prayers to the idol of Lord Vishwakarma.
People across the state celebrate this day in a grand manner with full pomp & enthusiasm. The devotees offer prayers and the organisers provide food and prasad to them in return.
