Gaya's Patwatoli Students Give Patriotic Flavour to Raksha Bandhan This Year
The students of the village, while preparing for the IIT entrance exams, have got down to making special rakhis in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor.
Published : August 3, 2025 at 1:58 PM IST
Gaya: The Patwatoli of Gaya will be celebrating the festival of Raksha Bandhan with a patriotic flavour this year. The students of the village, while preparing for the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) entrance exams, have got down to making special rakhis in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor.
They plan to send these rakhis to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian soldiers posted on the borders with neighbouring countries.
One of the students, Shalini Suman, said, "Our soldiers protect the borders of the country, and we must tie Rakhi to them." She will be sending the rakhis by post to the Army camps in the Northeast, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and the western borders.
She disclosed that a special rakhi has been made for the Prime Minister while keeping Operation Sindoor in mind. "This rakhi represents our country's flag, the Tricolour," she said.
Another student, Shobha Kumari, said that besides Modi and the soldiers, she has also made a rakhi for the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. "We are happy that PM Modi gave a befitting reply to the terrorists through Operation Sindoor. Indian tourists were killed in the Pahalgam attack. Women lost their sons, brothers and husbands," she said.
Operation Sindoor had been launched on the intervening night of May 6 and 7 at the terrorist hideouts across the border in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK). This operation followed the militant attack on tourists in Pahalgam on April 22. The hostilities had ended with a ceasefire.
For the special Operation Sindoor Tricolour rakhis, the students have used pearls in the three colours. The students of Patwatoli have made about 2,000 such rakhis.
Patwatoli is a village in Manpur block of Gaya, which is also called the City of IITians, as every year around 50 students successfully clear the IIT exams from here. This year also 40 students were successful in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains and eight in JEE Advanced. Engineers from this village are making their mark in 18 countries. The students aiming to become engineers do not have to pay for the preparation of the exam, in which 'Vriksha - We The Change' institute has been playing an important role since 2013.
Popularly known as 'the Manchester of Bihar', Patwatoli used to have a flourishing textile industry in the past. It still has around 8000 power looms and 1000 handlooms. Jitendra Kumar was the first engineer to come from this village. He is working in the USA. He is the key component of Vriksha - We The Change that provides free tutorials to students aspiring to get admission in the IITs.
After 1992, three students from here could land at the IITs in 1998, and it has been producing engineers consistently since then. Till now, the institute has produced more than 500 engineers.
The mythological tale behind Raksha Bandhan has its genesis in the Shrimad Bhagwat Purana, where Goddess Lakshmi tied this Raksha Sutra to the Demon King Bali and secured Lord Vishnu for herself on the full moon day of Shravan month. This year, this festival celebrating the bond between brothers and sisters falls on August 9.
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