Dakshineshwar: A Story of beliefs,Strange Malls and the scorching Kolkata Sun

* This post was written on Saturday-any reference to ‘Today’ invariably means Saturday(11th Oct) not today *

Durga pujo is the festival of the bengalis.Its the festival of togetherness for the communism fed and Trinomool stricken simpletons of the eastern most Bengali speaking state-a state sorry to say, no one cares as much anymore.Its the time bengalis all over pack their bags and travel to Kolkata to spend a few days with their loved ones(read senile parents and relatives who just refuse to leave ‘bongobhumi’ or whatever was left of it).Part of that travel usually involves succumbing to old traditions and some needless locomotion in a weather which though counts to some 27 degrees centigrade yet feels like 36 degree centigrade because of the abysmally high relative humidity.Add to that the ever inviting face of a scorching sun and you get you own shot of a sunburn tequila ! Coming back to the needless locomotion part.Well we have a family pujo of our own-its a Kali pujo.You can do the pujo during the scheduled days of Kalipujo or you can do it on special Saturdays where a lot of factors from the Bengali almanac fall in line.Also after all major events in my family its a custom to travel to Dakhineshwar and offer our pujo to the Goddess Kali there.This time the event was the first homecoming of sonny.

Foreigners snapping religious madness while Mr. Oddball floats away...

Of Traditions and shirky memories : Pujo 2008-Kolkata-MohaSoptomi

The Pujo this year has been a mixed basket of anticipation-part filled with the excitement of returning home for pujo after so many years,the rest filled with the calmness and sense of belonging to my roots.In my previous post also I have touched upon the sensitive subject of ‘culture’ and how after so many years I came back to find that it has not changed a bit,only mangled and re-shaped in a horrendous way that is scary and amusing at the same time.Also as said before the pujo has always been that time of the year where I have lost something precious and dear just when I’ve had set high hopes on them.So over the time I have slowly tried to shrink the four day extravaganza to a single day celebration and holiday in the silicon lands.That said,from the perspective of loss this year has been no different.Now this is not the post about it and so I will not dwell on that too much;it will be enoough if I say that Kolkata is not the same as I left it about 5 years back.Pujo is different,the crowd is different,faces in the crowd are different and the values of those faces are different.

Ya devi sarbabhuteshu..shristirupen songsthita....

Some things never Change :Pujo 2008-Kolkata-MohaOstomi

Being bengali at the heart is a big responsibility.Add to that about 24 years of being a bongo in a coke can (read being brought up in kolkata-oops Calcutta))imbued with the supernatural and unforgiving juice of ‘culture’.Okay I spoke metaphorically too soon but I seldom tend to rationalize my jumbled thoughts when it comes to a little extempo’ on my roots.And roots they are,never went to Kolkata in the Pujo-s for the last 4 years,always instilling this belief time and again that I have grown out of that sentiment and that ‘culture’.I was so wrong.

Moha Ostomi Pujo