True, love, veneration and agony know no logic. With entire India uniting in prayers for early recovery of superstar Amitabh Bachchan and his family members from corona, fans, nay his ‘devotees’ have started special prayers accompanied by Mahamrityunjay Jaap in this unique temple — arguably the only one in the whole universe — dedicated in the name of what they call “Jay Shri Amitabh.”
Cut to Sridhar Roy Road at Tiljala area of Kolkata where Sanjay Patodia has converted a part of his palatial mansion into a dedicated temple of the Big B whom he worships as the living “God of the Kalyuga.”
The family skipped its dinner on Saturday night after learning about Bacchhan’s illness one is told. “Ever since we learnt that Shri Bachchan has contacted corona we have started a special puja and Mahamrityunjay Jaap to secure his wellbeing,” said one of the women members of the Patodia household. According to the Hindu traditions Mahamrityunjay Jaap is done to save the life of a person from an imminent danger.
The 24x7 special Puja will continue till each member of the Bachchan family gets cured, said senior Patodia adding, “we have nothing in our life save Bachchan ji. Despite being in Mumbai we feel his presence here.
We have secured dresses, shoes, spectacles used by him and they are all worshipped separately. Here but from today we have made different arrangements apart from the daily puja of Amitji,” he said pointing at the “Garbha Griha” or sanctum sanctorum of the “temple” where they have installed an idol of the superstar sitting on a throne like a God.
On a normal day of regular puja a “Filmy Aarti” is performed here every six minutes where they chant a specially created Amitabh Chalisa of 9 pages. After the Puja the visitors are given Prasadam. Patodia a staunch Amitabh aficionada constructed the temple in way back in the year 2001. Since then he organizes a daily Puja here of whom he calls “my living God.
The visitors are expected to worship not only the Big B but also the shoe that he donned in the film Agneepath. Apart from this the temple has about 400 different kinds of glossy photographs --- some poster size, others life-size --- of the megastar from various in films and in myriad moods. The priest shows incense sticks to each of the pictures every day whence special prayer called Amitabh Namah --- created by Patodia himself is recited.
