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Sarodiya Durga Puja, a five-day festival in Bengal, features over 300 pujas in the NCR, with Bengali communities profiting from events like culinary fetes and artist visits. A Special Feature by Richira, exclusively for Different Truths.
In a few hours from now, Sarodiya Durga Puja will kick start in full swing. Each year with the arrival of the five-day festival…Bengalis turn whacky and go berserk. To use the ubiquitous phrase, they let their hair down and make merry with gay abandon.
Long ago, on this forum itself, I had written a nostalgic piece about my impressions of Delhi pujas as a kid. The current story has a different flavour though.
I had set foot in the northern region as a primary school pupil. Exactly 50 years later the picture has undergone a sea change. Now there are at least 300 pujas (and still counting) in the entire area, the National Capital Region (NCR). Bengali ghettos and mega housing estates with a huge Bengali population are vying with one another to organise Puja in their respective premises. In earlier decades, the solitary New Delhi Kali Bari on the city’s Mandir Marg used to be the fountainhead of all socio-religious functions including Durga Pujo. As of now at least half a dozen more of its counterparts dot the metropolis. In all of them, Durga Puja is observed with traditional devotion and fervour.
During the Puja season, the enterprising Bengali eves don’t seem to lag…
During the Puja season, the enterprising Bengali eves don’t seem to lag when it comes to the question of making a few quick bucks. That is perhaps the genesis of the Anandamela culinary fete which is staged generally on Panchami day. The ladies pull up their socks and dish up special items (which they claim they claim they are master chefs at). The list is as vast and varied as the stars shining in the sky. The wares are eagerly consumed by the pandal-hopping crowds besides the locals. The list includes” chop cutlet, “luchi-kosha mangsho, fish fry, mughlai parotta, and kobiraji cutlet” beside a galaxy of Bengali sweets. Their authenticity, taste, and quality are subjective and highly debatable. However, the prices are most certainly on the higher side.
While still on the topic of food, it is as clear as daylight how the profile of prasad (sanctified food, distributed post-Anjali) has changed. The platters of sliced fruits are yielding place to sweets and maybe half a banana or an apple. The ladies today have neither the stamina nor the time to devote to slicing and or peeling mounds of fruits with the traditional BoNti (albeit a deadly contraption). Signs of modernity (?). Similarly, changes are creeping into the Bhog Prasad menu as well. I think I espied paneer curry on somebody’s bhog plate on one occasion. Was it? I wonder.
After food (pet pujo) it’s time to look at the music scenario.
After food (pet pujo) it’s time to look at the music scenario. This year too, the most sought-after singers of Kolkata, (read Bengal) are travelling with a dual purpose: Visiting new places and minting money. The old familiar proverb comes to mind. Roth Dekha Kola Becha (witness the Rath Yatra festival and sell off your stock of hand-picked (home) garden fresh bananas). The maverick Iman Chakraborty is already in the US of A with her troupe. Ditto for the melodious duo Shubhomita and Srikanta Acharya. Somdatta Banerjee is slated to perform at multiple venues in and around the National Capital Region. Likewise, Monomoy Bhattacharya accompanied by his son (a budding singer) will fly down to perform at the Durga Puja organised by an up-market housing society in Indirapuram. He will be followed by the popular pair Sourendra-Soumyajit and Neeraj Sridhar through the consecutive nights.
Let me sign off here by wishing all our readers a joyous and fun-filled Durga Puja!
Picture design by Anumita Roy
