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Dhaak, bhog, and Durga
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The City once again wears a festive look this Navarathri. The Bengali associations are meticulously organising the festival, decorating pandals, getting exquisitely carved idols of the Goddess, and even taking care to use eco-friendly material, writes SOMIKA BASU.
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WOMEN WITH bright streaks of vermilion on the sides of their faces, dancing and swaying to the beats of the dhaak, and the aroma of freshly prepared bhog... This is the scene at every Durga puja.
Durga Puja is celebrated with more fervour by Bengalis than any other community in India. Bijoya (Vijayadashmi) evokes powerful sentiments in the Bengali. This is the time when ties with friends and relatives are renewed. The nine days of Navarathri and the tenth day is celebrated as Vijayadashami.
It is also a time for activity and employment for all. In Kolkata, the entire community of artisans are busy ensuring to earn a sizeable income that will sustain them for several months to come.
Enormous pandals are erected with a great deal of creativity to represent the various associations in each locality. The pandal, which is always associated with the puja in Bengal, houses the entire set of divine images and provides a space for devotees. The pandal is essentially a bamboo framework with cloth stretched over it, forming a tent of sorts. In fact, a pandal constructed in Kolkata as a replica of the Belur Math, was almost 90 feet in height. It required 3,500 bamboo poles, 5,000 planks of wood, and over 2,000 metres of cloth. Puja committees are known to spend lakhs to decorate the pandals. Chumki Bhattacharya, a resident of Kolkata, says: "Today puja pandals seem to sprout like mushrooms in the City. Apart from cultural programmes and blaring music from the loudspeakers, there is fierce competition among organisers to outdo one another in their extravagant and lavish shows. There are also people from neighbouring states who line up to catch a glimpse of the protima. And there are awards for management, lighting, the image of the Devi, and for creativity."
In keeping with the present trend of environmental protection, most pandals, these days, are made from waste products and biodegradable materials. Hence, one observes that coconut shells, cloth, earthen pots, and even hyacinth flowers are used to form the structure to house the idol of the goddess. Artisans are busy crafting exquisite idols of the goddess using clay. Even the electricians do their bit by coming up with innovative illuminations (everything of topical interest from World Cup football to nuclear tests is portrayed). And the dhaakis, whose unsurpassed virtuosity finds expression in the frenzied pounding on huge barrel-shaped drums, invoke an almost hypnotic rapture.
In Bangalore, the Bengali associations do their bit to recreate the warmth and togetherness of Durga Puja. But, the Bengalis here have different views about the celebrations in the City. "The air is so charged up in Kolkata around this time. My friends and I would go out every evening to visit all the pandals, and by the end of it we would have inevitably covered the entire city on foot," reminisces Sujoy Sen, a student who misses Kolkata during this time.
Reshmi Basu, a member of The Bengalee Association, misses the collective enthusiasm that envelops Kolkata during the puja. "There everyone is involved in revelry. Here, the celebration is limited to Bengalis and some other small groups. Even among the associations here, there is no actual togetherness since most of the gatherings are scattered around the City," she says.
N.P. Mukherjee, another member, feels differently. "The organisation of the puja here is excellent. Children are encouraged to be a part of the festivity as much as the adults and that is important. The atmosphere is homely and the feeling is that of an extended family," he opines. In Kolkata, during the three days of Ashtami, Navami, and Dashami, night and day are inverted. People sleep during the day and are out in thousands on the streets at night making rounds of the several pandals, worshipping the Divine Mother. Once the puja and immersion are over, the city literally lapses into gloom for a while.
But, there is always the next year to look forward to.
According to the Bengali calendar, the days for the Durga Puja are counted on the basis of the sunrise and sunset while the tithi depends on the rising and setting of the moon. The Sasthi, Saptami, Nabami, and Dashami pujas are performed after sunrise even if they fall on the previous evenings. The Goddess is worshipped as a kumari or young girl, and later reveals herself in her true form on Mahasaptami (the seventh day of the moon). On Mahashtami (eighth day) and Mahanavami (ninth day) the celebrations reach a feverish pitch. On Dashami (tenth day) the idol of Durga is immersed in water. She is usually accompanied by what Bengalis hold as her family - Ganesha and Kartikeya - who are her sons, and the goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati, who are supposed to be her daughters. This is a tradition unique to Bengal. The reason for this is that Durga is believed to come to Bengal not as the Mother Goddess, but as a daughter visiting her parent's home along with her children. She is believed to have lived a difficult life all year long in the Himalayan snows, and therefore a great deal of fuss about her comfort is made when she comes for a visit. The immersion of the goddess into the Ganga, after the puja is over, is seen as the dissolution into the Universe of the Mother. This ceremony recreates that divine act of transcendence, as well as delivering a valuable lesson on the impermanence of all things, no matter how beautiful and valued they may be.
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