Durga Puja has started in
full swing from today and it would be four years in a row I am outside Kolkata
during Durga Pujo. I will miss the maddening clamor of Kolkata illuminated in
the garb of one of its much awaited and celebrated festival of the year. Few
days before in a party someone I met asked me about the hullabaloo with Durga
Pujo and I quoted her the lines of Vir Sanghvi who crooned the essence of Durga
festival beautifully in his words "You can take the craze of Diwali in
Delhi, ...Christmas in London, summer carnival in Rio de janeiro, Valentine's
day in Paris and then add it to the month long madness of Olympic Games or the
world cup and cram all that into a span of 5 days and you still wouldn't know
what you are missing if you haven't been in Kolkata during Durga Puja".
Such is the craze with Durga Puja that people all through the years count days
for this mighty festival to begin and plan for months on how to spend those
precious five days.
Like thousands others, I
have plentiful of beautiful memories connected with Durga festival. First
crush, new dresses, fight with friends, food feasting, getting together with
relatives and friends from different parts of the globe all of these and lot more
take place in the span of those five days amidst the glitter of lighting and
melody of sound. From the first strike on Dhak till the immersion of the idol
and even after that, the mood of the festival pervades every home in Kolkata.
Once the pujo is over, people visit each other's home to exchange greeting of
the festival by eating different homemade sweets and delicacies. Sitting in a
foreign land in an uncanny silence occasionally broken by the sound of dish
water and microwave beeps, I miss a lot the sweet clamor of Kolkata and most of
all 'the people'. With 10 weeks into my pregnancy, it will be more than a year
waiting when I will be able to visit my homeland again. Sigh !
