Getting festive

Sitting atop the roof of a truck on the day of bisharjan, I was as happy as a 26-year-old can get. Really the simple pleasures of life such as bouncing a massive balloon back and forth at your 16-year-old cousin and entertaining a 2-year-old cuddly little niece gets to you!

On the way to the bisharjan


The sights enroute were beautiful. As beautiful as they look each year. The Victoria Memorial looking majestic and shimmering in the waters of the lake adjoining it, horse buggies standing by the roads waiting for enthusiastic passengers and Durga idols passing by on trucks with young guys in hordes leading the processions.

And then to return and feast on huge amrittis (imartis), shorshe ilish, aloo posto. Oh just thinking about it makes me feel so contented and full.

We actually have a puja in the family. It's about 150 years old and my father quite likes to boast about how it started off in Faridpur in Bangladesh. So an idol is brought to our relative's home and the entire family gets together during these four days of Durga Puja to celebrate it.

The ladies of our house during shondhi pujo when 108 diyas are lit. The shondhi pujo happens at a time when Durga is worshipped as Chamunda as she is believed to have killed two asuras - Chando and Mundo.

Below are some snippets of my jaunting around the city on ashtami night with friend E and her sister and brother-in-law.

All the way, Ma Durga!

On Vijay Dashami, I made sure that we had a look at the Hogwarts pandal in FD block, near my place in Saltlake. Apparently, J K Rowling and her publishers had sued the FD block association for it, but the association had gone ahead with it anyway. Am glad they did so. It was grand.

And Rowling lost!


P.S.: I got bitten by a dog. By a Dalmation of all dogs! Can you imagine how absurd that seemed to me. It was only after he barked, pounced and bit me (that happened so quickly I had no time to react) that my father said, "He had torn my shirt last time. I told you not to go near him." I wish he had said it earlier because when at night I applied some Homeopathy medicine on the bite and blood kept oozing out, it sure felt like hell. Especially after I had to take a tetanus injection thanks to which my arm swelled to twice its normal size and refused to go away for the next three days. Talk about an anti climax to the friendly 'hello' I sent the Dalmation's way!