Durga Puja …Looking back and forth..

Dear Ninni,

Owing to a complex cross-cultural upbringing we are giving you where Navaratri, Dusshera, Karva Chauth, Diwali are being celebrated with full pomp and festivity, we took special care this year to give you a feel of ‘Durga Puja’. Strange, something which has been such a vital part of our young days, me and your father’s, something which we would long forward the whole year, something which would begin with the whiff of ‘ Shefali or Shewli ‘ flower in the air, sky a shade bluer and gear up with the beginning of many shopping trips by maa and neighbouring aunts. Many shopping trips didn’t mean they used to shop as we do now, it was like one saree at a time after a lot of shop scanning and the next trip to return it as neighbour aunty has remarked something negative or maybe simply raised an eyebrow in disapproval!!

I have seen my father’s extreme irritation but guess that was the fun of Puja shopping and final envious nod by neighbouring aunt and Mashi, the battle was won!!

You of course have seen malls and supermarkets by the time your senses worked, learned to take a trolley and pick up your stuff, have seen your maa shopping, learned to check the price tag as maa does, though unable to decipher the meaning. While we were young, when lucky maa used to take me along for shopping and believe me it was a very boring affair.

We would sit in the shop, the salesman would get out sarees. After around a dozen is seen, colour, design demanded, price bargained. It was a daunting task to walk out, but the trick was if you walk out and if your bargain was correct salesman would call you back ‘Arey boudi.. madam suniye to’ still you have to pretend to walk out till he gives a call again!!

Since my mother emulated our neighbour aunt and it seemed my mother always felt she was a master at bargaining and walking out so she followed it when we went shopping. It never worked as fine and the salesman always did not call back!! If he did, maa would doubt, not only doubt but try to bargain further as she thought he agreed with a bit too soon!! Perhaps her face. She makes it so grim.  They live in’ she would remark about her neighbour. Shop hunting in the busy alleys of Fancy Bazar Guwahati before the pujas was an experience in itself.

After Maa’s saree part, our outfits, which many times would turn out to be ill-fitted(no trial rooms then) Shyness and awkwardness dominating during teens, white-based typical Bengali sarees for oldies, totally white dhoti like clothes for the widows in the family (though things changed gradually, widows were given normal sarees but white had to be dominant). Baba’s outfit came last and many times he went without new clothes. Maybe to cover up for the expenditure incurred or as he would put it, ‘I don’t need new clothes.’

By Mahalaya (It marks the beginning of Devi Paksha in simple words the Puja season) preparations would gear up. On the Mahalaya day, Maa would invariably switch on the radio at wee hours of the morning and Birendra Krishna Bhadra’s unmistakable voice year after year ‘Ya Devi Sarva bhuteshu’…and in the early years all would wake up in the morning, the entire neighbourhood, collect ‘Shewli’ flowers. These subsided gradually with just lame playing of audio cassettes then CDs and no early morning walks.

Finally, Pujas would begin. Shopping completed, gifts distributed, showed to all and sundry who come home. No parlour hopping that time by Maa or aunts, things were simple.

On the Shaptami day, Baba would give the first report of the idol in the morning of the Puja in the neighbourhood. We collected flowers, those ‘Shewli’ strewn in the ground, filled our baskets, not an easy task, braving vector bites (thankfully no dengue that time), squatting all the time and then stitched garlands to be put across the photo of Goddess at home, these seem a fairy tale to me as well now!! And yes! all those Sharadiya Bangla magazines (Sharadiya because of Sharat season I guess), we would finish the novels one by one – me, Baba, my aunt, grandma. Later my brother and I would discuss which was the best.

You know, I have read ‘Kakababu’ from the first Puja magazine I learnt to read. Some new writings are good, some are average and this year I haven’t read a single one because I could not go to C.R. Park and get the magazines in time. Another young character I was so fond of when kid ‘Gogol’ also disappeared with the writer’s early demise like happy Puja days.

In the evenings we would go out with parents mainly, sometimes with my aunt Bubu, Pandal hopping, and in spite of father’s strong dislike, I and maa would go for the carts selling hot chaats!! Maa used to be extremely happy as she was relieved of cooking at least in the evenings though there was no formal ‘eating out’ then.

On the Ashtami day, sometimes we would visit Ram Krishna Mission and offer Anjali amidst the huge crowd. We will stand in queue for Khichuri served as prasad. When a bit older, I started visiting with friends, neighbouring Didis. There was a different aspect to puja, getting dressed in your best and longing for attention. I understood that gradually as I noticed them getting all attention from boys and them laughing it off with pride, there was envy for the pretty girls and extreme consciousness and gawkiness in the teenage days would lead me to stick to parents or friends and never venture out alone.

On the Dashami day when the idol was immersed, I also went behind the truck with my neighbouring aunt (four years older than me) and her father. When we were kids, I saw boys dancing in ‘Mithun Chakraborty’ style, and I remember she also tried some moves with slogans like ‘ Asche bachar abar hobe!!’ Evenings were reserved for offering ‘Pranams’ to elders, tying the sacred thread around the wrist, and then gorge on coconut ladoos, nimkis, sweets. Gradually less homemade stuff and more outside made stuff.

A void used to be there after Puja was over, though holidays continued, the climax was over. While we grew up, to me and my brother a few years we used to go out for a trip with parents and sometimes got the chance to watch the Kolkata Pujas or Delhi Pujas, sometimes we missed it altogether but now. Since my brother moved out of Guwahati, coming home is a must for him during the Pujas and me.

After you have come, I’m a diligent pandal hopper. In Delhi, I longed for the cultural programmes and the big names who performed but with you, I want to feel the ‘Durga Puja’, both your father and I, just like bygone days brushing us with a breeze, to show you, a part of us we left back home in a different time – balloons, toy pistols what not. We used to get them only in Puja time, and my neighbouring aunt I talk about (Tutu pishi), she preserved her cherished balloon beneath the lid of a drum containing rice (earlier we used to have drums or tins containing rice and we used to have rice thrice a day) so that it survives a long time and believe me it did to my surprise, and she would open every day and show me her blue balloon!!

Last year in Barapani (Shillong), I was not able to show you Durga Puja. This time we took you around Delhi and though we thought it was more for you, guess it was more for us, to find a bit of lost days again, a bit of togetherness in this tight paced life.

Love

Yours Maa