00:00The village of Magbin Kuva came alive on Tuesday night with a commencement of its Ramlila celebrations,
00:11which featured the story of Lord Ramam and his eventual triumph over the demon king Ravana.
00:16Part one of the reenactment began with the exile of Sri Ram into the forest for 14 years,
00:21based on a request by his stepmother to her husband, King Dashratha.
00:26That one hit Dashratha so immediately as though he's getting a heart attack.
00:30Look at Dashratha, he's falling, he's writing in pain.
00:34Oh my queen, please reconsider, I beg of you, your demands is inconsiderate.
00:40I cannot believe what I'm hearing. My son Sri Ram.
00:46But Ram courageously makes his preparations for his exile from Ayodhya,
00:50with his wife Sita and brother Lakshman accompanying him.
00:54The grief from losing his son leads to Dashratha's death.
00:57And those in attendance got a witness to cremation with an actual pyre that was lit.
01:10Public relations officer of the Magbin Ramlila and cultural group Karishma Ramuta says,
01:16It started off as a family event initially, but there have been changes.
01:20In the sense that we have grown our membership exponentially.
01:24We now have entire families taking part.
01:27We've upgraded all of our infrastructure or props and everything.
01:33We even started going live on TikTok every single night.
01:37So we've incorporated technology.
01:39We are very active on our social media.
01:41We like our audience to feel very connected with us.
01:43And this is also our way of reaching out to them.
01:46Even if they can't be here physically, we try to reach them via the media.
01:50Over the past three years or more, people are said to be coming from opening night
01:54and staying with the play for the days over which the story is told.
01:58Ramuta tells us that the group has been around for the past six years
02:02and has been educating children in terms of the religious and cultural aspects of Ramlila.
02:07We do workshops for children. We do free workshops actually for the children
02:11teaching them about Ramlila, makeup, dance and even the Ramlila jump as well.
02:16We also do a fundraising veggie queue every year.
02:19And in addition to that, on that day, we feed various homes throughout the community.
02:24The Ramlilas had to be concluded on Sunday with the burning of the effigy of the demon king Ravana,
02:29who is referred to locally as Rawan.
02:32Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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