The 'Bharat-Pakistan Bordercha Raja', which travelled all the way from Mumbai to the newly-established union territory, could not enter Poonch district due to security arrangements in the region after the abrogation of Article 370.
The six-feet-tall idol, which set off on the Swaraj Express from Bandra to Tawi on August 26, now sits neatly packed with Kiranbala Isher's a family in Jammu, waiting to take centre-stage at the festivities next year.
But soldiers at the border have not been deprived of the auspicious presence of the elephant-headed god — a smaller idol, one-feet tall, has been taken to the Line of Control for them. Isher had carried two small idols for the two Maratha regiments posted there.
For Isher, who runs an NGO for the welfare of soldiers and the kin of martyrs in Ghatkopar, this has been an annual ritual for nine years.
Since 2015, she has been taking an idol from Mumbai to Jammu and Kashmir, and they are usually made by visually-challenged idol-maker Vikrant Pandhre. The journey takes 36 hours by rail and then there are another 300 kilometres to traverse by road to Poonch. Most of her family comes to receive the idol with much fanfare at Jammu station.
In anticipation of hurdles in reaching her home district this year, she began the journey on Janmashtami for Poonch. Before reaching Jammu, she sent word to her family to get permission from the Army to carry on to Poonch.
Given the current situation, she was refused permission to celebrate the festival in Kashmir.
"After many ardent requests, I was allowed to carry a one-foot idol to Poonch, and keep it in a temple at the border," she said. The idol was consecrated in the presence of officers from the Maratha Regiment — Majors Abhimanyu Deshmukh and Sunil Thange, and Subedars Major Patil and Shivraj Pawar.
Though there was cross-border bombing on September 1, and India totalled two Pakistan bunkers in retaliation on September 2, about 50 to 60 officers from the Army have been lining up for darshan every day.
On Visarjan day, Isher will immerse the idol in Pulastya river which flows into Pakistan.
