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Playing gods, goddesses to make a living

BERHAMPUR: Members of small folk dance groups from rural areas of Andhra Pradesh have started visiting the city to earn during puja season by entertaining people as mythological characters during Durga Puja season.

Most of them reach the city at early morning from villages of Srikakulam district taking the Palasa-Cuttack DMU. They paint their body and dress up as characters of Hindu mythology.

As it is the Durga puja time, many of them don the garb of goddesss Kali, Durga or Laxmi. Language is not a problem for these performers in Berhampur as a sizeable population of this major trading centre speaks and understands Telugu. They present small shows with the accompaniment of drums and other musical instruments at street corners and in front of business establishments to collect whatever the crowd gives them. They return home by the Cuttack-Palasa DMU at night.

Apart from these daily visiting amateurs there are professionals like Y.Prasad and Subba Rao, who claim they have inherited this tradition of entertaining people of Berhampur during

Durga puja season from their forefathers. These performers from Mandapetta village near Rajmundhry have been doing this for three generations. Like earlier years they have taken a small house on rent at Khalasi street.

Every morning they get into the disguises of Lord Krishna and Jambavana and move around the city performing to the lyrics of Harikatha and Burrakatha, said Rao.

They usually prefer to spend one month at townships adjoining Andhra Pradesh, where people understand Telugu.

For Rao and Prasad, Berhampur is the choicest destination as memory of this city lives in them since childhood, when their grandfathers used to performing on the streets of the city.

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