Raahgiri day celebrated all over Bhopal

With the seventh Sunday in row, Raahgiri Day again saw Bhopalites charging up for the week ahead with some dance, music and fitness.
With more than 5,000 new registrations for the Raahgiri Day, this time the venue was jam-packed, and many Raahgirs complained about the excessive commercial activities around the venue, gave them less space to move. This time, the Raahgirs were spotted sporting the ‘No Polythene’ theme and pitched in their support for the cause.The initiative to keep the road vehicle-free near the lake has been embraced by the people, reflecting the changing mindset towards healthy living. Amidst the issues and concerns, Raahgiri’s essence of fun and freedom remained intact. Muskan Rajani, a homemaker, told us, “This was my second visit to Raahgiri Day, and I loved it, especially the Vishal Zumba dancing corner. It was difficult to even think that women could freely dance on the streets in Bhopal. But, now this is possible, all thanks to Raahgiri. Also, an exciting concept was witnessed this time around – drones. These drones hovered over the crowd and captured the top view. — With inputs from Neelesh Sen
The crowd was given caps of three different colours to wear – the front row wore orange caps, the middle one was sporting white and the last rows donned the green caps. Patriotic songs were being played in the background, which elevated the atmosphere, ” said Muskan.
Ravi Satwani, 28, a businessman, shared, “This is my seventh consecutive Raahgiri experience, and each time I end up liking it even more than before. I love the Zumba classes the most. Thanks to Raahgiri, my Sundays are no longer confined to just lazing around. Also, I hope we will have more healthy food stalls here as that will just complete the whole Raahgiri experience. But there is no special area allotted to these stalls, due to which the stalls are put up in the Raahgiri arena, which causes a lot of chaos, just like it happened earlier also. So, we really need some specific area to be allocated to these food stalls.”
BCom student, Honey Singh told us, “This was my first visit, and it has exceeded my expectations; it was that amazing. Initially, when I walked in with my friends at around 6.30am, there were hardly any people around. But within an hour, the place was flooded with people. I hope that from next time, some entry fee or check-in gate system will be there to monitor the crowd. Otherwise, it will lead to nothing but mismanagement and suffocation. However, people are religiously following the vehicle-free policy near the lake area, which earlier used to be crowded with vehicles. So, at least there is some free space to roam around. With Raahgiri we can enjoy the scenic beauty, which went unnoticed earlier.”
WITH INPUTS FROM NILESH SEN