Lalu in jail, Rabri to miss him during Chhath

Patna  :  With RJD chief Lalu Prasad in jail in connection with the multi-crore-rupee fodder scam, his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi Tuesday said she will miss him while celebrating Chhath – the most popular annual Hindu festival of Bihar, starting Wednesday.

There will be festivity all around, but Lalu will not be around to help her perform rituals and offer prayers.

“I will celebrate Chhath with all devotion and everything. After a long gap, I will celebrate Chhath in absence of Laluji. His absence is something which can’t be described in words,” Rabri Devi told media persons, here at 10 circular road, her official residence.

Lalu is currently lodged in Ranchi jail, after he was convicted in the fodder scam and jailed for five years by special CBI court last month.

Rabri Devi recalled that Laluji used to help her in preparing traditional meal during the festival. “I will miss him during rituals and prayers to setting and rising sun,” she said.

Clad in her usual colourful cotton sari with red bindi on her forehead and surrounded by party leaders, Rabri Devi said, she will pray for good health of Laluji in jail.

“He is in jail for few days, I am confident that he will come out of it soon to play politics in Bihar as well as in India,” she said.

Four-day Chhath celebration will start Wednesday with ‘nahai-khai’. Devotees, mostly married women, will throng to river banks early in the morning for a ritualistic bath, before preparing the traditional meal of boiled rice and pumpkin.

This will be followed by ‘kharna’, when ‘kheer’ will be cooked and distributed among neighbours, friends and relatives.

During the festival, married women observe a fast for 36 hours and devotees offer wheat, milk, sugarcane, bananas, and coconuts to the sun.