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They add colour to car festival

Cynosure of all EYES: Panchanan Mohanty, who opted voluntary retirement from police forces, draws attention of crowd in the attire of Lord Hanuman during car festival in Puri on Friday.

PURI: When deities were taken out of sanctum of sanctorum of Sri Jagannath Temple on Friday, Chitta Ranjan Sahani, a male performer, oblivious of curious glance from thousands of onlookers, kept on dancing to lead the colourful procession. Neither he was hired by Jagannath Temple Administration nor did he come for a self-promotion of his dancing talent.

"The art form is called Pahandi dance. I have been doing for more than a decade now. This is purely a devotion to Lord Jagannath for which I come a long way from Jagatsinghpur district to dance in the procession," Mr. Sahani said here on Friday.

The dancer has done his doctorate in Oriya literature and dance and runs a dance school. He was flanked by Narayan Pandey, another dancer from Puri who also belonged to a well off family. Meet 64-year-old Panchanan Mohanty, who took voluntary retirement from police service, to don attire of Lord Hanuman. He is a regular visitor to car festival. "Man is evolution of monkey. There is no difference between man and monkey. It is better to come to Lord in your purest form," Mr. Mohanty said.

He attracted lots of devotees during car festival here on Friday. Some devotees were even seen touching his feet. The world famous car festival never lacks the colour. Scores of people attired in attractive dresses will turn up at the festival every year.

Bhakta Charles, a French national, was again spotted hanging a structure having idols of Lord Balabhadra, Lord Jagannath and Devi Subhadra from his neck. He never misses the car festival.

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