This Navratra, leelas of Ram at your fingertips

By Shagun Taank
New Delhi [India], October 16 : With the beginning of Navratri from tomorrow, the countdown to Vijaya Dashami starts when the Ramleela is enacted across the country.
But this year, the coronavirus pandemic has dampened the spirit of Ramleela. If you want to avoid Ramleela gathering, an alternative could be to hear or read some interesting tales from the epic, Ramayana, (which only a handful from the present generation knows) safely at your home.
But where will one find these stories? A mobile app, which has 350 stories, spread over 100 locations in the Indian subcontinent.
An IIT alumnus, with the help of a team of 25 college students from across the country, has developed the mobile application -- TheRamayana.
Dubbed as an amalgamation of modern technology and Indian tradition, TheRamayana is a virtual museum of over 350 written and audio tales from the Indian epic.
"It is a technological product that is deeply immersed in culture also," project manager of the application, Brinda Singh, told ANI.
The stories on the platform can be accessed on the basis of the
of the Ramayana, the characters, and the locations where they took place.
"Each story is linked to the location where it takes place, starting from Ayodhya, covering the entire Ram-
. Over 100 locations from the Indian subcontinent have been mapped," Brinda said.
About the aim of the application, founder Bhuwan Arora said that the team wanted people to be informed about the epic so that they can form an unbiased viewpoint of the same.
"No scripture is good or bad; it's the value system that restricts its beauty and essence," the 30-year-old entrepreneur said.
"With changing times, it's important to adapt to new value systems by representing the richness of such scriptures from an unbiased point of view, in ways that the current generation relates with," Bhuwan added.
The team further wishes to expand to other scriptures belonging to different religions practised in the Indian subcontinent.
"It is a beginning but we would like to expand to other epics. This (Ramayana) is a major Hindu text but we would like to cover other religions also. There are lots of misconceptions about other scriptures," said Brinda Singh.
"It is a step to educate people about the ancient scriptures like Ramayana, Quran, Bhagavad Gita, Bible," she added.
The application that went live on Android and iOS in July has over 1,500 Ramayana lovers across the globe.
"I gifted this app to my father who loves to hear stories from the Ramayana; he is very happy with the app as it has character-wise stories from all the
," said a New Delhi-based user, Radhika.
The application brings the world of Lord Ram to the fingertips of the users who can access the tales in both English and Hindi.