Postcards from Singapore will have to wait. I am not in the mood.
The reason: Durga Puja is approaching.
The magic has not reduced at all! Its just like the way it used to be when I was a schoolboy with an unruly mop of hair (astonishing but absolutely true).
In those days, we used to have our 2nd Term examinations in September.
I always used to do badly. I don’t remember a single occasion when I came in the top 5 of my class in the 2nd Term. I used to always leave it late and make up my ranks and grades in the final term.
Anyway let me now digress. As I was saying, we used to have our 2nd term examinations in September. And right after that came the Puja. A month long holiday, no studies at all, a time to go out with friends, a time to enjoy…
We would go to Labony and sit on the waist high boundary wall and have animated conversations about football and cricket with frequent breaks every time a beautiful woman passed by. When this happened, there would be a pause, as we .nascent teens would appraise her! We would then discuss about her for the next 10 minutes. Then we would get back to the conversation thread that had been interrupted by a whiff of beauty.
Then we felt hungry we would go to one of the stalls and eat a egg-chicken roll, or a Mughlai Paratha. It helped that these stalls were set up by the residents. They would always give us boys a generous serving.
Usually around 7 PM we would have the “Aarati”. All of us would troop into the sanctum sanctorum. It would be a long affair amidst wisps of incense and the sound of drums. The frail old priest would, as if energised by the divine, sway with the incense holders in his hands and sonorously chant verses.
We usually did not linger for the entire duration, but would slip out and come back in time to receive those drops of holy water.
At some point during the evening the drummers would begin their dance and everyone in the vicinity would congregate to watch them, nimbly dancing with drums that look so heavy.
And then people would join in, the youngest children first, then the uncles a few years shy of superannuation, then the teens and the ones in their 20’s and 30’s. And then slowly as if transformed by the rhythm of the drums the whole crowd would dissolve into one joyous mass of dance!
On the Ashtami and Nabami (8th and 9th Day of the festival) afternoon, we would have a community feast.
The food was not always something to write about, but it always felt good to go to that big playground where a large tent would be put up and eat together.
The on Dusshera day came the time to bid the Goddess Adieu.
We would all go to Labony again. Right from the time they start to dismantle the pandal and bring out the Idols. Then we would watch as the idols would be placed on open trucks and illuminated.
Then the band would start playing and the trucks would start their slow journey through the streets of Salt Lake, followed by hundreds of people, some just walking and some dancing and singing. As we would make our way along the main roads of Salt Lake, people would come to their balconies to watch the Goddess go past and make one final prayer for the year.
This would continue all the way till my house. There the procession would end.
And I would run ahead and go home to help my parents get the water ready. Every year all the people would come to our housing complex to quench their thirst after a tiring march.
Its become a tradition now and all the people in the ground floors stay ready with bottles and jugs of water.
To me that is the essence of the Puja, of people reaching out to others.
It was for these moments that we would all eagerly wait from September, forgetting our studies and paying more attention to the new clothes we would get, the things we would do, which block would have the best puja and all that.
That was over 12 years ago.
Nothing has changed.
I am still waiting eagerly for the Puja’s, despite the fact that I am in Chennai, (it seems such a dreary place now) miles away from home. And just as I found it hard to concentrate on studies, I find that my mind is not on my work. My mind is 1600 kilometres away eagerly waiting for me to join him on 30th September.
Ya Devi Sarva Bhuteshu
Shaktirupena Samsthita
Namastasyei Namastasyei
Namastasyei Namo Namaha
(Salutations to the Goddess who manifests as power in all beings)
Ya Devi Sarva Bhuteshu
Shantirupena Samsthita
Namastasyei Namastasyei
Namastasyei Namo Namaha
(Salutations to the Goddess who manifests in all beings in the form of peace.)Salutations)
