Durga Puja, the greatest festival of West Bengal, is celebrated in the month of Ashwin, i.e. September – October. The city puts on a new look during this time with specimens of artistic brilliance in the form of ‘pandals’ and idols all over the city. Though it is a Hindu festival, people of different religious faiths come together and participate in the festivities, making Kolkata erupt with unchartered joy and delight.
The evergreen voices of Birendra Kishore Bhadra and Pankaj Kumar Mullick on the day of Mahalaya announce the onset of festivities. It is a time when people clad in new clothes offer their prayers and go out with their friends and relatives for pandal hopping. They flit from one place to another like a butterfly, drinking the elixir of joy that the four days bring with them. With every fleeting hour, the excitement keeps on mounting and it reaches a crescendo on ‘Nabami’. People of all ages share the same degree of excitement and exhibit the same level of energy in visiting the places that are renowned for their embellishment for the occasion.
During the Puja season emotions are high with thoughts of homecoming, happy reunions with parents and daughters married to distance places, between brothers separated across the oceans; the beat of drums thud across the twilit skyline releasing a fresh boost of life amidst the locality numbed by its numerous problems. Everyone tries to forget at least for the four days the hard-pressing reality and utmost practicality of everyday life as they take the welcome break from routine life and lose their work-a-day identity in the swirl of festivity.
During the Puja season, emotions are high with thoughts of homecoming, happy reunions with parents and daughters married to distance places, between brothers separated across the oceans; the beat of drums thud across the twilit skyline releasing a fresh boost of life amidst the locality numbed by its numerous problems. Everyone tries to forget at least for the four days the hard-pressing reality and utmost practicality of everyday life as they take the welcome break from routine life and lose their work-a-day identity in the swirl of festivity.
Thus Durga Puja indeed plays an integral part in every Bengali’s life, which every Bengali however far from his motherland, feels at the bottom of his heart.
Written By : Shyamal Das