The idols were absorbed into the water of Ganges,
drawing an end to the celebrations called Durga Pujo in India, and in my native
place - Kolkata.
Part thanksgiving, part family get-together, part
state fair, Durga Puja is a 5-day joyride ... from fasting to feasting, from prayer to getting dressed in new clothes to offer the prayer and undoubtedly romancing the crowd that
throngs the pandals ... either clicking or getting clicked for the next social
networking profile picture.
I flew down to Kolkata from Mumbai on Mahashoshti and
I realized that in this short span of time, I consumed just about two kilos of
ananda naru, one of sondesh and tumblers full of (if not less) of chaler payesh
to guarantee an early onset of Type 2 diabetes.
I, like all conventional Bengalis, will urge you to
visit Kolkata during this festivity. But, here is the thing, going to
Kolkata during this time, if you are not from Kolkata, is like going to New
York during Christmas. Yes, the people and the sweets are lovely but they are
all humongously festive. If you, in fact, truly want to experience a Durga Pujo
with all its soul unspoiled, you need to be either a Bengali, or marry a
Bengali, and since I am the first category, I indisputably believe in the first
one.
If you have not done either of these, you can still
take delight in Durga Pujo, but I bet you will miss many vital facets of the
festival, including the fact that this pujo is really a pageant, well, a beauty
pageant, to be precise. You will similarly miss out on the “adda”, a Bengali
word that loosely decodes as gossip, but also carries undertones of
intellectual conversation and is synonymous with plentiful of whisky drinking.
If you and your liver survive, you will be reimbursed with a significant amount
of food (fish, substantially) that will account for your entire carry-forward
allowance on the flight home. And you will need it to sustain yourself later
the week it will take you to recover.
But, having said it all, the long queues of the
curious onlookers and the huge pujo-special billboards distinctly portray that
though the religious fervour may have taken a toss, the popularity and madness
have made up for it. The puja is thus, still is a thriving survival story
albeit with a soul-swing.
Here are some of the finest photos of my Pujo holiday
in kolkata clicked by my hubby:
