Durga puja means a whole lot of different things to different people but to the Bengalis it is the single most important event of the year. From one years Pujo to next years Pujo is what defines the time period of one year for a Bengali. This week’s rant is all about the Puja and the joys and memories associated I will also will attempt to present a picture of the difference in celebrating styles in the east and the west from my perspective.
Durga Pujo is the time for giving, spreading the love and also the time when one just has a blast . Celebrating Durga Pujo in a mid sized town in West Bengal came with its share of joys and more joys. It was typically a time when exams were done, you did not have to “sit down” to study your books. It was all cricket, hanging out with friends till late at nite, spanking new clothes, the constant beat of the Dhak, the sumptuous “bhog’, no holds barred. One virtually acquired the license of doing all of the above in any order that mattered without having to report back to parents, without the stress of falling behind in the academic rat –race and without having to worry about the “return-home curfew timing” . Five-seven days of freedom unlimited. This of course included eating all of the fried food which could put the trans fat content of the popular fast food joints to shame, “pandal-hopping” which was the task of evaluating how big or small the Durga Thakur “murti” was in the neighboring rival pandals and marking the ones visited off your to-do list.
Moving west , cut that really fun time by almost 96 hours, make it all indoors no unlimited boundless space to move around, add “pandal hopping” distances of greater then 500 mile distances in between “pandals”, make most of the all time dhak sounds electronic, the big negative no time off for pujas , no friend food stalls, liability issues to worry about if any kind of game results in some form of irreversible physical transformation (read breaking the car window glass) , heavily accented mantras , no free throws of the “pushpanjali” , no complex material handling issues with lifting of the Thakurs to and fro to their assigned position in the Pandal , no wild bollywood style dancing in front of the procession to the beat of the dhak on the way to the Ganges for the immersion ceremony , no politics on who gets more “haaris” of “Bhog” during the five days of Puja. Allright allright there are positives too , we do have one day where we display all of our new clothes- a fashion show off the stage, get all the bhog and food which is close to what we get in the east , have all the adda squeeze in everything that we normally would spread over five days…. I know I am not quite making a big deal of the positives yet but I should be happy that we get to experience Puja on the opposite end of the world !!
To conclude Durga Puja has a special meaning to a Bengali and there is not quite another event in the Bengali’s life that can bring so much joy, happiness and hope .
Durga Pujo is the time for giving, spreading the love and also the time when one just has a blast . Celebrating Durga Pujo in a mid sized town in West Bengal came with its share of joys and more joys. It was typically a time when exams were done, you did not have to “sit down” to study your books. It was all cricket, hanging out with friends till late at nite, spanking new clothes, the constant beat of the Dhak, the sumptuous “bhog’, no holds barred. One virtually acquired the license of doing all of the above in any order that mattered without having to report back to parents, without the stress of falling behind in the academic rat –race and without having to worry about the “return-home curfew timing” . Five-seven days of freedom unlimited. This of course included eating all of the fried food which could put the trans fat content of the popular fast food joints to shame, “pandal-hopping” which was the task of evaluating how big or small the Durga Thakur “murti” was in the neighboring rival pandals and marking the ones visited off your to-do list.
Moving west , cut that really fun time by almost 96 hours, make it all indoors no unlimited boundless space to move around, add “pandal hopping” distances of greater then 500 mile distances in between “pandals”, make most of the all time dhak sounds electronic, the big negative no time off for pujas , no friend food stalls, liability issues to worry about if any kind of game results in some form of irreversible physical transformation (read breaking the car window glass) , heavily accented mantras , no free throws of the “pushpanjali” , no complex material handling issues with lifting of the Thakurs to and fro to their assigned position in the Pandal , no wild bollywood style dancing in front of the procession to the beat of the dhak on the way to the Ganges for the immersion ceremony , no politics on who gets more “haaris” of “Bhog” during the five days of Puja. Allright allright there are positives too , we do have one day where we display all of our new clothes- a fashion show off the stage, get all the bhog and food which is close to what we get in the east , have all the adda squeeze in everything that we normally would spread over five days…. I know I am not quite making a big deal of the positives yet but I should be happy that we get to experience Puja on the opposite end of the world !!
To conclude Durga Puja has a special meaning to a Bengali and there is not quite another event in the Bengali’s life that can bring so much joy, happiness and hope .
2 comments:
Mayukh bindaas blog !! Now what about the kosha mangsho and luchi !
Very well expressed...although I cannot completely relate to your musings haven grown up outside Bengali...I do miss the 3-4 days of delicous bhog and labra as well as the "free throws" and yes ofcourse the Kosha Mangsho
Post a Comment