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zzzzzzzzzDurga Puja for us may not be following rigid rituals but is the tradition stuck in some external exhibition of modern extravaganza?
Malini Mukherjee, State-Coordinator,INTEL education shares with us an enigmatic yet hilarious experience. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz |
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It was more of a community celebration during our time , and I am not talking about things ‘long back’, but two or three decades back, when Durga Puja , Diwali or Eid would mean being together, good food, new clothes and lots and lots of genuine fun. Now, as I move from one para to the next, I cannot but admire the articulate ‘theme’ mandaps, the light and sound effects, the serpentine lines of devotees(?) in ‘oh-so-cool’ attires, the blasting band music over the microphone and wonder how we managed to be so happy sans all these paraphernalia in our childhood. |
From the early morning mahalaya which joined all the household in a single note of celebration, to the Durga mandap where our mothers and grandmothers chopped the fruits and vegetables for prasad, the wet smell of the print in ‘anandamela’ for which we waited with baited breath, the |
| wonderful stories of purana that my atheist father would tell us as he took us for the aarati, the smearing of ‘sindoor’ on bijaya to be followed by the home made goodies, which are a rarity these days…….everything cast an indelible mark in our young minds which had, perhaps, little to do with religion. |
As the young boys demand an exorbitant sum from me as this year’s chanda, I lay down a condition before them-“ only if you can tell me the story of how ganesha acquired his elephant head”. “but ma’am……”,smiles a fellow uncertainly, running his fingers ,adorned with at least ten rings to ward off the evil, through his long locks, “ our ganesha’s head will not be visible, as he’ll be wearing a space suit, like Sunita Williams.”
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Puja Schedule 
