Swami Vivekananda, on his return from America in 1897, reached Khetri for the third time on 12th December, 1897. He was accorded a gala welcome by the then ruler of Khetri, Ajit Singh Bahadur and the people at large at Panna Shah Talab. The public reception was accompanied by a feast amidst dazzlingly illumined town in honour of Swamiji. At the call of Ramakrishna Mission, Khetri, a committee of prominent persons of the town decided to celebrate every year, starting from 2011, the historical day of 12th December as ‘Khetri Virasat Divas’. Accordingly, on 12th December, 2012 the second ‘Khetri Virasat Divas’ was celebrated. On that day a morning procession (Prabhat Pheri) of one thousand school children marched through the town to remind people about the significance of the day. In the afternoon a live tableau of Raja Ajit Singh bringing Swamiji in a horse carriage was positioned in a huge procession leading from the border of the town up to Panna Sha Talab. The prominent spots of the town were illumined. A drama on Swamiji’s life was enacted by a group of devotees of Delhi in front of a gathering of one thousand people at the Talab. A variety of folk song and dance troupes sent as a gesture of goodwill by the department of Art and Culture, the Government of Rajasthan took over next. The programme was extensively covered by the Newspapers and local TV Networks. As a whole the festival made an indelible mark in the minds of the people of Khetri.
Here is the list of articles in newspapers, which covered this occasion. (Please click to view them).
