India, Sept. 28 -- This year, Ram Leela across Delhi asked not what happens, but why: A Study of Characters. Across four stages - Chirag Delhi, Pritam Pura, and the twin stages at Lal Qila, audiences explored the choices, dilemmas, and inner worlds of the epic's figures. Ram's steadfastness, Sita's grace, Kaikeyi's fear, and Ahalya's redemption reflected each spectator's own questions, doubts, and virtues. But what makes a festival? The lights, the drums, or the gathering crowd? Or something quieter, a child stepping forward to see the stage, an elder smiling at a familiar scene, a flower in devotion? This is Navratri.

In these performances, Ram Leela held the city in quiet awe, blending story and fleeting moments of connection. In Chira...