Experiencing Durga Pooja for the first time

Everyone must have dreamt of visiting Kolkata during Durga Pooja for all the charm it brings. Being an annual hindu festival, it is mostly celebrated in eastern states of India. Especially this is the largest festival of Bengali Hindus. 

As told by our friend, the celebration actually goes on for 5 days and those five days were declared as official holidays in West Bengal.

First day of Durga Pooja -Shashthi (also the sixth day of Navrathri) marks the procession of bringing in the deity(Aagaman). The beautifully decorated idols were brought to the home or to the magnificent pandals.

Second day - Saptami takes place on the seventh day of Navrathri. Early in the morning, a small banana plant called Kola Bou is taken to the river to be bathed and dressed in a red bordered sari and carried back in a procession to be placed near the idol of the Goddess, which literally means bringing in the pran of Ma Durga to the idol. This is then followed by ritualistic prayers and pooja, which will take place for all the remaining days of the festival(Ashtami, Navami, Dashami).

 “A youth spent without stories to tell is no youth at all”

Third day- Ashtami
Being one of the auspicious day, a day long fasting is undertaken by people. On this day, a holy pot filled with water and spices, is decorated with mango leaves with a cocunut kept on top of it where the face of Ma Durga is drawn and worshipped. Weapons of Goddess Durga are also worshipped on this day. 

Come on! Enough of theories.  Let me bring out the celebrations of Durga Pooja from my very own experience from Navami(9^th day).

Forth day - Navami

For the much awaited Durga Pooja celebrations in our friend’s home, I and my roommate boarded train to Jamshedpur. As per schedule, our train was supposed to reach Jamshedpur by 9 am. Our plan was to reach his home on Navami to witness the Aarathi pooja.

Goddamn train! We had to miss the Aarathi pooja celebrations because of 8 hours train delay.

Nevertheless we were lucky enough to treat ourselves with Bhog(Offerings made to the Goddess Durga which is later distributed among the devotees). Bhog – Chachada, Kichadi(And I love pronouncing these dishes' name).

Dandiya Dancing

While eating, our friend’s mother asked us whether we were interested in dancing. Being someone who is always open to opportunities, I instantly said with a glee that we were interested, thus pulling my roommate’s leg. After having food, we went to the dance practice room. 

Since they had also just started practising, it was easy for us to join them. We practiced for an hour and went on stage to perform.

Ready for Dandiya Dancing

Glimpses of Dandiya Dancing in front of Ma Durga.

Go Pandal Hopping

After the gala night and scrumptious dinner, we started on the so called “Pandal Hopping” by 11:30 pm. For all those who wonder what does pandal hopping literally mean? 

Pandal Hopping is just “Hopping from one pandal to the other pandal to witness the varied forms of Ma Durga residing in.” Pandals are where highly decorated, life sized idols are kept.

When my friend mentioned about pandals, we imagined a normal pandal where Ma Durga idol will be kept. But the actual pandals were a matter of extravaganza. We were spellbound at the colossal construction of gorgeously decorated pandals emphasized with varied themes.  

Numerous pandals were set up showcasing the creativity of people.  

Awfully alive night

True to the adage that pooja days are the days where the city doesn’t sleep, we were stunned to see the jam-packed crowd all through out the night. We saw people of different ages dressed in their best attires waiting in the queue to get a glimpse of Ma Durga in the pandals and to celebrate the victory of good over evil. The whole city was lit in various colours making the night awfully alive. There were also plenty of street foods options available near every pandals.

Kashidih Pandal

We first ventured out to Kashidih pandal. We were awestruck at the brightly lit mammoth construction. The theme was to depict the varied dance forms of India from kathakali to nongkrem dance. 

The different dance forms were portrayed inside small clay pots arranged in stack which looked even more adorable. 

Ma Durga of Kashidih Pandal was mind-blowing matching with the overall set.

Tuiladumri Pandal

From there, we hopped to Tuiladumri Pandal, which was having a theme of Monastery beautifully lit in gold. Both the interior as well as the exterior decoration of the pandal detailed the theme of monastery.

Sidhgora pandal  

We further hopped to Sidhgora pandal. The speciality of this pandal was that it was centered on the theme of a current event. It was depicting the scene of Nepal earthquake with high rise buildings falling and helicopters flying on rescue mission. I marveled at the hard labour being put to create such a mighty construction.

                                          

Adhityapur Pandal
Though we were totally exhausted from all the walking, we hopped onto our car, with the zeal to see the best pandal of Jamshedpur and progressed towards Adhityapur. That was a huge globe shaped pandal depicting World peace. 

There was a queue for about two kilometers. The sight of which made us even more exhausted. Nevertheless the fervor to see the best pandal kept us moving.

The idols depicting Ma Durga with a ferocious lion and mahishashur in her chamunda avatar.

I heard from my friend’s cousin that the rich people spend crores of rupees on pandals and it’s a matter of pride for them to host the best pandal in their locality. Some of the other pandals which we saw that night.

We retired back home after pandal hopping by 5:30 am.

Fifth day- Dashami
Sindhoor Daan Ceremony

Next day morning we woke up late to the tang of homemade noodles. We were asked to come down for the Sindhoor Daan ceremony around 11 am. 

The married women dressed in their traditional Bengali saree(White saree with red border), first applied red sindhoor to Ma Durga idol. And then they applied sindhoor to other married women, exchanging sweets and hugs among one another.  The view of all married women with red sindhoor applied on their faces, was charming.

Exchanging Sweets and Hugs

The purest of joy

Visarjan

The tenth day, also known as Dashami marks the visarjan(immersion in water) of the idol with grand celebrations and processions. It is believed that on this day, Goddess Durga gained victory over evil. After having our platter of piquant Bengali dishes made by our friend’s mother, we set out for the immersion ceremony.

Kids with Ma Durga in the procession van

The procession was there to carry the Goddess to the river to be immersed in water(symbolizing Durga’s reunion with Shiva).

In Jamshedpur, they took the Goddess to subarnarekha river for the immersion ceremony. All the way, people were dancing to the beats irrespective of age, gender.

On reaching the subarnarekha river, there were announcements on removing the plastic from the idol before immersion. I was happy to hear such announcements as to some environmental measures were being taken before immersion of the idol.

Visarjan

After Visarjan, we reached back home and got refreshed to treat ourselves with an appeasing food.

As we had planned to start to Kolkata next day early morning, we bid bye to other people in the apartments after dinner. 

Kolkata – City of Joy

By 6 am, we started in steel express to Kolkata. We checked into our Hotel Lindsay by 11 am.

Pandal Hopping in Kolkata

After refreshments, we headed to Bhojahori Manna for treating our taste buds with an authentic Bengali food. After which we hopped onto a metro station to board metro train to Jatin Das park for pandal hopping. Our friend’s cousin who is a local of Kolkata, had informed us to see few not to miss pandals of South Kolkata -Tridhara, Maddox square, Deshapriyo park. We could see creativity at its best in all these pandals.

Tridhara

Other pandals which we saw en route.

Though we had plans to visit other pandals(Ekdalia, Singhi park and Hindustan club), we returned back to room to find some rest.

Next day, we explored the iconic places of Kolkata before boarding our flight at night.

This grand social event of Durga Pooja showcases the beautiful culture of Bengalis in India and is a must experience for those who love the varied cultures of India.

We were lucky enough to have a Bengali friend to experience the best of Durga pooja.

For those who doesn’t have a Bengali friend, here's a way you can make your dream come true. There are many Durga Pooja tours being organised by Government as well as private agencies while the most prominent one being the West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation. Here's the link below!

https://www.wbtdc.gov.in/

Month of Trip       - Oct'16
No of days of trip  - 5 Days
Overall Trip Cost - INR 9000