Festival with a Difference

 WHY I MISS KOLKATA during Durga Puja is something I can never get my head around. The pujas don’t just epitomise a festival, they are more. It’s a feeling of camaraderie, of unmitigated joy, and an underlying exuberance mired in bonhomie and festivity. Growing up in Kolkata, I realised that the pujas were always symbolic of something much deeper than just the protima or the pandal.

They were the coming together of people from all walks of life celebrating the arrival of Ma Durga, and then being sad at her departure. But during the days she was amidst us, there was unfiltered joy, and there was a kind of hope which ran through the community. No matter what pain one was going through, during those eight to ten days, you felt nothing but a sense of absolute delight.

For the last several years it has not been possible to go to Kolkata to celebrate the pujas, but this year I went to the North Bombay Pujo organised by the family of Kajol and Tanisha, both from a formidable family of thespians. What was even more delightful was to see their mother Tanuja, and the way the Pujo was organised was reminiscent of what Kolkata used to be before it became a hub of commercial activity.

As I reached the North Bombay Pujo, it was the wafting smell of chicken rolls and dhuni, of the dhak and the beating of hearts as they lay their eyes on the protima which was stunning. I then asked around as to why the North Bombay Pujo had become such a big one, bigger than many that you can see in Kolkata. I was told that the Bengali population in Bombay has increased over the years manifold.

It was then that I realised that while Kolkata still celebrates the pujas with festivities that can be unmatched, here was one puja which was doing it all and doing it so splendidly. There is obviously an element of Bollywood, but what I saw was the reverence and the quiet elegance one had always associated with the pujas. And therein lay the difference. The way people were serving people, the way the bhog was organised, and the manner in which everyone greeted each other was something one hadn’t seen in a long, long time, especially in a city like Mumbai.

So one begins to think that it is religion, when exhibited in a way that is non-threatening and harmonious, that begins to unite people in a manner you and I can’t imagine. And the pujas are one such festival, be it in Mumbai or Kolkata, or for that matter even in Delhi. There’s a charm that only the pujas have which is unmatched because the festivities are not only about the worship or about the prayers or even about the chanting of hymns.

It is actually a festival of food, of entertainment and, most importantly, of coming together in all your finery. So, the last day when there is the famous Bengali dance ritual called Sindoor Khela— related to sindoor, the vermilion married women wear—is in itself a celebration of life and happiness.

This is what religion should be. This is the harmony we revel in and the joys we seek. Not those mired in hatred. Or shrillness. Bengal has always been the hub of secularism and it needs to stay that way and the arrival of Ma Durga is not just something that Hindus feel for. It is about the larger community and for the greater good.

Here’s wishing all of you and your families more happiness, more prosperity, and greater serenity. Because that is the essence of the pujas and may it remain this way.