What a Friday it was for Bengaluru. If in the morning, the forceful evictions of 18 Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs at Karnataka Legislative Assembly had the city buzzing, in the evening, the attention shifted to the much talked about event -- Cauvery Aarati at Sankey Tank, where laser lights and Vedic chants held sway.
Just as Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar had predicted, the crowd swelled -- the official estimation stood at 10,000 -- as people trooped over to this restored artificial lake spanning little over 37 acres to witness the historic event.
Although not everyone present had a spiritual motive. Especially the Gen Z, spotted in considerable numbers, were mostly hanging around, having fun with friends while the families sat glued to screens showing the puja.
Nineteen-year-olds Suchitra and Aarthi, who came from 'beyond Banashankari' said they were simply curious to know what it was all about.
"We come here to go boating regularly. And when we heard there'll be a puja here, of course we wanted to check out the scene," said Aarthi.
Vishnu and Rajesh, all of 22 years old, said they live nearby in Malleswaram and dropped by when they saw the crowd.
Twenty-one-year-old Reshma, an engineering student and a resident of Rajaji Nagar, said her mother dragged her along.
"I was literally forced to come," said Reshma, sitting next to her mother, who was watching the proceedings on one of the giant screens, and flicking through Insta reels.
Reshma said her mother really wanted to come when she heard this was similar to the Ganga puja in Varanasi.
Incidentally, priests from Varanasi were supposedly flown in to perform the rituals.
Nikhil, 20, and three of his friends, snagged themselves the best seats before the giant screen, armed with snacks, not to watch the puja, but waiting for Raghu Dixit to perform.
"We are his fans and follow him on Instagram. He had posted that he will be performing here tonight and that the entry would be free. We thought, why not?" said Nikhil.
Twenty-year-old Prajwal said they decided to make it a 'mothers' day-out'.
"Our mothers are good friends as well and we live in different parts of the city -- Yelahanka and Hebbal. We thought we could all meet here, hang around and witness something historic too," said Prajwal, pointing to his mother Padma, 50, and his friend's mother Anita, 44.
The group positioned their chairs in a circle, away from the screen, and were seen in a group huddle for most part of the puja.
A first for Bengaluru, Cauvery Aarati, which had created much ripples when it was announced, was a tribute to the Cauvery River, the city's primary water source.
An Interlocutory Application (IA) was filed on Thursday asking the court to stop the Cauvery Aarati and all related construction activities, either temporary or permanent, within the waterbody or the buffer zone of Sankey Tank.
The court disposed of the IA after being assured that the event will be held in accordance with law.
Earlier in the day, Deputy CM Shivakumar had gone to Triveni Sangama at Bhagamandala (confluence of Cauvery and its tributaries Kannika and Sujyothi) and performed puja there too.
He had also gone to Talacauvery, the source of Cauvery to collect 'Kalashas' of water from the three rivers to Bengaluru for the puja.
The Karnataka government is also attempting a Guinness record for the world's largest pledge campaign on water conservation.
Visitors were distributed pledge pamphlets and were urged to sign up for it at all entrances to the venue.
Shivakumar had announced earlier that a week-long campaign, coinciding with World Water Day on March 22, will be held to create awareness about water conservation.
"The water conservation campaign will administer an oath not to misuse water. People can take the oath online as well," said Shivakumar.
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