VADODARA: After offering namaz at the mosque, Sohail Patel religiously turns up at the Hanuman temple in Tarsali and begins chanting the Hanuman Chalisa on Saturday evenings. Sohail is soon joined by a dozen more Muslims, who hail Hanuman with bhajans. The crowd swells and a large number of Hindus joins the chorus.

For an outsider, it may be a surprising sight. But in Tarsali, the picture hardly raises eyebrows.

A large number of Muslims in and around Tarsali are ardent devotees of Hanuman. They don’t just offer prayers but also organize religious programmes along with Hindus during Hanuman Jayanti. This in a city where communal violence can break out over the flimsiest of reasons.

“I have been visiting this temple over the past few years. I learnt Hanuman Chalisa and offering prayers here has helped me a lot. After offering prayers at mosque, I visit this temple and sing bhajans,” 20-year-old Sohail told TOI.

When work to establish the temple began eight years ago, locals formed a trust ‘ Shri Maruti Mandal ’ and both Hindus and Muslims donated generously to construct the temple. The temple now has 3,000 members of which over 500 are Muslims.

Memon Tufail, 25 and Raju Abbaas, 21 are also learning Maruti bhajans. “Offering prayers to Hanuman gives us spiritual satisfaction and strength. I am happy to pray to gods of both faiths as they both teach harmony and unity,” said Abbaas.

Interestingly, Abbaas also narrates various stories of Hanuman to devotees in the form of katha.

The temple located on the banks of Tarsali Lake has 96 secretaries of which 20 are Muslims.

“We did face problems in our community when we began visiting this temple. But we didn’t pay heed to it. For us, humanity comes first as religion and we will continue praying here,” said Yunus Patel.

Temple trust president, Rakesh Patel popularly known as ‘Bhagyabhai’, said, “Hindus and Muslims here have always stayed together and prayed at each other’s places of worship. Even in 2002, our vicinity in Tarsali didn’t witness any trouble.”

About 500 Hindus and Muslims are planning to watch Salman Khan’s latest flick ‘ Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ together on July 30.

