A late update : Amar shohor e Durga pujo
I have reached a point where I have a lot of thoughts and words in my mind but none of them end up turning into a complete blogpost. Perhaps I have lost the patience to sit and complete a post or maybe I've become lazier than I was before. But whatever it is I am here now in front of my laptop to write something which I hope will make up for the long break I took from blogging.
As they say Pujo is a state of mind for the people of Bengal. Pujo is not only a religious occasion for the intellectual, communist state of ours but it is a thought where faith meets art, craftsmanship, imagination and creation. Pujo Pandals in Kolkata are made not only for the sole purpose of worshipping the goddess but every year they come up with a new theme to suit the taste of the average finicky Bengali!
Durga Pujo in Kolkata is not a festival but a 4 day long celebration where the whole city gathers together like a big family to welcome the Goddess. People buy and gift new clothes for the 4 days of the pujo and the women match and keep ready the outfit and jewelleries before the days approach. You can see all the latest (and sometimes the dreaded!) fashion on the streets with most teenagers trying to experiment something different during the pujo.
Months before the Puja clay artisans start to breathe in life in the images of Durga with clay and bamboo sticks. The clay with which the idol of Goddess Durga is made is incomplete without some soil taken from the home of a sex-worker. This is an old tradition still maintained by the idol makers, wherein a priest has to go and beg for some soil from the doorstep of that woman.
The irony is that the state where Durga Pujo is celebrated with such a grandeur and more than thousands of idols are made and worshipped across the state, is also the place which has the largest red light area of Asia.
Maybe this is our hypocritical society's way of giving back to those women a bit of respect which was snatched away from them. Perhaps their doorstep is more holy than any other because they sell their bodies but not their soul.
Pujo brings is the coming together of one big city the old bylanes of the north and the commercialised south. Every free, imaginable open space, overtaking roads, traffic circles, narrow streets and neighbourhoods has a pandal in it.
My city is decorated like a bride, the beats of dhaak, the smell of dhunno,the strings of lights. The roads are decorated with lights,from animal shapes to dragons, Howrah bridge, Eiffel tower, strings and boards of lights keep my city alive and awake for 4 days. All the teenagers get an extended curfew time on these 4 days from their parents. People go on all night pandal hopping from one part of the city to another. The restaurants(both the good and bad) have a long queue, most of which remain open all night to feed the night hoppers!
The maddening rush of the crowds gathered to visit the pujo pandals, who are ready to wait for hours to catch one glimpse of the goddess before they are pushed out of the pandal by a sea of people.
The Pandals have song and dance performances in the evenings after arti. I remember sitting through such programmes in my childhood after pandal hopping the whole day, when I spent the days of the Durga pujo in my nani's place with all my cousins.
On Bijoya Dashami, when Ma Durga is immersed in the Ganges, the devotees chant with a heavy heart Ashche bochor abar hobe which means the next year is approaching,we will worship Ma again.
During Durga pujo this otherwise chaotic city of mine comes to a standstill for 4 days, I've heard that everything has a time span and the enthusiasm and craze for most things reach a saturation point after which the slope descends but the Kolkata's maddening exuberance for Durga Pujo will hardly ever go.
As they say,
Ashche bochor abar hobe(The next year pujo is approaching)
Bochor bochor abar hobe. (Year after year it will continue)
*All pictures have been clicked by me.
As they say Pujo is a state of mind for the people of Bengal. Pujo is not only a religious occasion for the intellectual, communist state of ours but it is a thought where faith meets art, craftsmanship, imagination and creation. Pujo Pandals in Kolkata are made not only for the sole purpose of worshipping the goddess but every year they come up with a new theme to suit the taste of the average finicky Bengali!
Durga Pujo in Kolkata is not a festival but a 4 day long celebration where the whole city gathers together like a big family to welcome the Goddess. People buy and gift new clothes for the 4 days of the pujo and the women match and keep ready the outfit and jewelleries before the days approach. You can see all the latest (and sometimes the dreaded!) fashion on the streets with most teenagers trying to experiment something different during the pujo.
Months before the Puja clay artisans start to breathe in life in the images of Durga with clay and bamboo sticks. The clay with which the idol of Goddess Durga is made is incomplete without some soil taken from the home of a sex-worker. This is an old tradition still maintained by the idol makers, wherein a priest has to go and beg for some soil from the doorstep of that woman.
The irony is that the state where Durga Pujo is celebrated with such a grandeur and more than thousands of idols are made and worshipped across the state, is also the place which has the largest red light area of Asia.
Maybe this is our hypocritical society's way of giving back to those women a bit of respect which was snatched away from them. Perhaps their doorstep is more holy than any other because they sell their bodies but not their soul.
Pujo brings is the coming together of one big city the old bylanes of the north and the commercialised south. Every free, imaginable open space, overtaking roads, traffic circles, narrow streets and neighbourhoods has a pandal in it.
My city is decorated like a bride, the beats of dhaak, the smell of dhunno,the strings of lights. The roads are decorated with lights,from animal shapes to dragons, Howrah bridge, Eiffel tower, strings and boards of lights keep my city alive and awake for 4 days. All the teenagers get an extended curfew time on these 4 days from their parents. People go on all night pandal hopping from one part of the city to another. The restaurants(both the good and bad) have a long queue, most of which remain open all night to feed the night hoppers!
The maddening rush of the crowds gathered to visit the pujo pandals, who are ready to wait for hours to catch one glimpse of the goddess before they are pushed out of the pandal by a sea of people.
The Pandals have song and dance performances in the evenings after arti. I remember sitting through such programmes in my childhood after pandal hopping the whole day, when I spent the days of the Durga pujo in my nani's place with all my cousins.
On Bijoya Dashami, when Ma Durga is immersed in the Ganges, the devotees chant with a heavy heart Ashche bochor abar hobe which means the next year is approaching,we will worship Ma again.
During Durga pujo this otherwise chaotic city of mine comes to a standstill for 4 days, I've heard that everything has a time span and the enthusiasm and craze for most things reach a saturation point after which the slope descends but the Kolkata's maddening exuberance for Durga Pujo will hardly ever go.
As they say,
Ashche bochor abar hobe(The next year pujo is approaching)
Bochor bochor abar hobe. (Year after year it will continue)
*All pictures have been clicked by me.
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