Durga Puja @ Kolkata

               For Durga Puja, I had eight days of holiday (a rarity, in itself). I could have gone home, to Tamil Nadu, and could have met my parents and friends, could have had delicious homemade food, which has become a luxury for me in the past five years. But (despite all the pluses), I decided to stay back, just to watch how people celebrate Durga Puja over here, at Kolkata.  I daresay, I do not regret it at all. To be honest, I loved it very much. Jot it down, I have never seen such a celebration in my life.

                Two weeks back, I had no clue on what will happen. Just like you are at this moment, (unless you are from Kolkata); but now I could write an essay about it.

Ahem, I can hear you fuming, “Badhri, cut to the chase“. Here we go!!

How do they do it?

                The Durga Puja phenomenon is for six days. The whole city is flood lit, even the darkest parts of the city (both in literal and non-literal sense) are bright and welcoming. Certainly, electricity is not a limitation for these six days, even 60 watts incandescent bulbs (the famous gundu bulbs) were used as serial lights for decorating many households. Bengalis perform Pujas at their home, like every other state in India, during the daytime.  But the best part, called ‘Pandhal Hopping’, will be the best if you become a Nocturnal.

                 People over here start making temporary structures called Pandhal, a month in advance, at least. There are hundreds of such Pandhals across the city. A standard Pandhal is a temporary structure (in all bizarre shapes) which will have Durga Statue inside. These are made based on some theme like Peace, Environment Conservation, even Space Exploration and so and so. But be assured that each of them was splendid in its own way. Some Pandhals were small in size, some were huge - like a palace, a fortress, etc (after seeing these, I started wondering why these are called ‘Pandhal’s). You will have difficult time in believing that these are temporary structures and will be dismantled after the puja. Some will definitely take you by surprise, like a 52 feet Durga statue made of fibre glass did for me. They have a contest called ‘Sharad Shamman’ for deciding the best Pandhals- innovative ones and beautiful ones.

                All you have to do is, to hop from one Pandhal to other, during the nights- as many Pandhals as the time and (more importantly) the traffic permits. Sleep all the daytime and seek all the night time.

Yes, I can smell the question in the air - What is sooo great in all this ????

-          Well, the answer is, Bengali People.

                Back in Tamil Nadu, Diwali is arguably the the most celebrated festival. Some people may say Pongal and let it be so.  For both of them, these days, the main focus is not on the festival itself, but rather on the other stupid things like television and movies. The first thing that we friends (that includes me too) discuss, be it Diwali or Pongal, is the films. The first thing most of my friends will do this Diwali will be to watch ‘7aam Arivu’ or ‘Mayakkam Enna’ or ‘Velayutham’(I hate to add this one in the list). Not to mention the super hit films and tete-a-tete with actors, in Television. I’m not saying that Tamilians do not celebrate at all, but I say that the whole festive thing is diminishing with every passing year. There certainly is a huge difference between how I felt about diwali when I was in fifth standard and how I feel about it now.

                But here in Kolkata, still the main focus is on the celebration, and more importantly, celebrating it in the traditional way. Bengalis have found out novel ways of doing it, but still they cover all the essentials – they Pray, they Meet and they Moot – all grandly and all in large numbers and more importantly with prime focus. The whole city is on the streets. I have stayed at Kolkata for eight months, till now. I swear that the number of people I have seen on these six days is much greater than the number of people I have seen during these entire eight months’ stay, put together.

                Theatres charged the same fare and not to mention, no new movies. Even Champions League T20 matches, which were supposed to happen here at Edens, during the Puja time were shifted to Chennai and Bangalore, for the fear of lack of audience. If you ask the reason, anyone here will give you the same answer- “It is Puja time, man”. Only one complaint which I could rally against, is the traffic. They still haven’t found out any novel way to tame the traffic. And I’m sure they will not, because, the whole population (Er… the modest usage will be ‘a huge majority of population’) is on the roads and pandhals; and so is chaos.

                Ask the people who have lived at Kolkata in the past, even if for a year or two, the one thing they’ll miss the most is Durga Puja. The City Of Joy does live up to its name during these days.

                And me, I have decided to stay here even for the next puja. I must be seriously retarded (which, I have to agree, I am, but in a lesser degree :p) to stay at the City of Joy and not to witness it at the Pinnacle of Joy.

Thanks.

PS:  I might have gone wrong (,or long) with few facts; and mixed past and future tenses generously. Forgive me. And yes, pictures.. Please take a look at the pictures below too. Thanks again.

Few Pandhals.. My favorite ones..

Interior Decorations

It is made up of Iron Mesh

Well... Something...

That was really Huge !!

And, that is the ceiling..

And, Gods of course..

52 Feet !!!