DURGA PUJA: PART 2
Looking beyond...
Looking beyond...
Essence of festivity outside Kolkata
Our very own Durga Puja is what we, proud Bengalis live for, well, at least most of us would love to believe likewise. It is not only the biggest and brightest festival of Bengalis, I would say it can claim to be one of the most fascinating festivals in the world, with all the grandeur of decorative pandals, breathtaking lightings, the beautifully sculptured idols of Maa Durga, and the ever so fashionable people all decked up to their best!
My memories of Durga Puja resonates to exactly these kind of festivities, which one can identify with Kolkata; no offence to Mumbai though, it has grown on me over the years, and I like it here too! My memories also take me to our ancestral home, around 60 kms away from Kolkata, in a quaint little village called Bhebia; off the slightly more known border town of Basirhat. And off late I have realized that these are the memories I will cherish more than the apparently more attractive Kolkata Pujo.
Happiness is a journey, not a destination they say, and it’s true! The journey to this destination used to start from our place in South Kolkata, near Deshapriya Park; where we would be joined by our aunts and families and we would start off in Sonababu’s van (may be the first of the SUVs on the Indian roads way back in the 80s, with maximum speed of 45 km/hr and all other associated features).
Our next stop would be Paikpara in north Kolkata, where the rest of the extended family would be picked up and ensure Sonababu’s van has more than a handful to carry. The lunch or brunch break used to be either in Deganga, the same road side restaurant every year with the yummiest kochuri and aloo’r tarkari! Enough of travel tales, so we reach our place post lunch, this is Shashthi (the first day of the puja), and so Durga Maa’s face is covered till bodhon in the evening.
Various family members start arriving in our 100 year old house, although at the cost of sounding immodest, it is more than a house, with more than 50 rooms spread across the arena. Kids start running around, playing games, not mobile games!! Evening starts with wearing new clothes, seeing the Bodhon, first glance of the Goddess. Next three days, would be same as ever, as we religiously go across performing the same duties as they should be done, the pushpanjalis, the afternoon bhogs, kala-bou being brought in, sandhipujo, evening arati, where the ghonta-bajano used to be the duty of yours truly! More than the Puja, it was always spending time together with the near and dear ones, a few of them like my first cousins whom I would meet at least 20 more times in a year, a few would be not so near ones, and this would be once a year, may be even less than that! There would be this uncle of mine, an avid angler, and we would give him company all the way from assembling his fishing rod, to spending countless hours with him, with the fishing rod in our hands and waiting for that slight movement and a successful catch! The elder cousin, who would captivate us with his repertoire of ghost stories, narrated sitting in the lakeside in the evening, he still does it even now! And then, the grand finale, the bisarjan, starting with sindoor-khela in the afternoon, the dance of Joya and Bijoya, two of Durga’s company during her five day trip to our world.
Then, the sad moment to say goodbye to the Goddess, when it would be difficult to hold back the tears, in spite of all the rational thoughts and atheistic ideas! But then, we always sign off with the hopeful thought of “asche-bochor-abar -hobey”!! I so wish, next time I will be in Bhebia, saying this! God bless you all!
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