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(9th 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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.
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| Exchanging Sweets and Hugs |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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
