Gone in 3 Minutes: Ravan Always Has the Last Laugh

There’s a booming economy around Ravan and most of it is stacked on the roadside in West Delhi.

Smile like Ravan for the camera? The kids who help their dad make the massive heads for Ramlila happily oblige. (Photo: The Quint)

The 2-kilometre Najafgarh stretch in West Delhi’s Tagore Garden looks surreal. Massive heads to be fitted on 30 to 40-feet high Ravans are lined up, waiting to be loaded onto trucks which will take them to UP, Punjab, Haryana and, of course, the multiple Ramlila venues across Delhi.

Ravan, Kumbhkaran and Meghnath take three months to make but will go up in flames in under three minutes. But all that hard work means big money for those who have created this hub for wholesale shopping for Ramlila.

(Video edited by Sunil Goswami.)