{"id":406238,"date":"2024-01-03T16:08:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T16:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/blog\/2024\/01\/03\/bhagwati-baggi-waale-keeping-ayodhyas-iconic-tonga-rides-alive\/"},"modified":"2024-01-03T16:08:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T16:08:00","slug":"bhagwati-baggi-waale-keeping-ayodhyas-iconic-tonga-rides-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/blog\/2024\/01\/03\/bhagwati-baggi-waale-keeping-ayodhyas-iconic-tonga-rides-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"Bhagwati Baggi Waale: Keeping Ayodhya’s Iconic Tonga Rides Alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Bhagwati<\/div>\n

Bhagwati said he has been riding the tonga since he was 8 years old<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Ayodhya: <\/b><\/p>\n

Ayodhya is seeing rapid makeover ahead of the much-awaited “pran pratishtha” (consecration ceremony) of the Ram Temple. A massive rise in e-rickshaws in the holy city has cast a shadow on the iconic practice of tongas\u00a0or horse-drawn carts.<\/p>\n

Bhagwati, 70, who is fondly known as “Bhagwati baggi wale”, is said to be the last horse-cart driver in the town.<\/p>\n

Every morning, Bhagwati and his horse “Babu” leave for work in the hope that the opening of the grand temple and the novelty factor around the horse-drawn carriage will bring in extra income.<\/p>\n

Speaking exclusively to NDTV, he explains how e-rickshaws are contributing to the decrease in the popularity of tongas.<\/p>\n

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“The tongas have gone extinct since the e-rickshaws have come,” Bhagwati told NDTV.<\/p>\n

“People prefer e-rickshaws as they are more economical and slightly faster than tongas,” he said.<\/p>\n

Bhagwati said that he has been riding the tonga since he was 8 years old.<\/p>\n

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He said he earns merely Rs 300-400 per day but is still ferrying the passengers on the tonga to keep the tradition of Lord Ram’s birthplace — Ayodhya — alive.<\/p>\n

“I do this to keep the practice alive. This is Lord Ram’s birthplace. I will never ride an e-rickshaw as I don’t like it. I like animals,” he said.<\/p>\n

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The Ram Mandir will be consecrated on January 22 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath are scheduled to attend the ceremony.<\/p>\n

More than 6,000 people are also likely to attend the event.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[ad_1] Bhagwati said he has been riding the tonga since he was 8 years old Ayodhya: Ayodhya is seeing rapid makeover ahead of the much-awaited “pran pratishtha” (consecration ceremony) of the Ram Temple. A massive rise in e-rickshaws in the holy city has cast a shadow on the iconic practice of tongas\u00a0or horse-drawn carts. Bhagwati, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":406239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[345,476313,867],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haftavasool.com\/haftavasool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}