durga puja of today

September 29th, 2006

Being a bengali , Durga Puja is like the mother of all events, holidays for us . It is the time , when most of us buy new clothes, visit various Puja Pandals all night even , meet friends and relatives , enjoy to the fullest … and oh, also of course we get around 5-6 days of holidays at minimum . ………… actually that was what Druga Puja was for me , even at least 3-4 years back , and with every passing years , it is changing . Currently I would probably say , Durga Puja is the time of the year when i get around 5-6 days of holidays, no client calls , meet old friends since we still visit some typical hangouts , dream if buying new clothes yet never get the time to do so till Saptami , and by that time most of the good stock is gone and if am not too tired and some of the lovebirds in whichever group i am in suddenly feel enthusiastic about watching the awards winning pandal , we might just do that . Going out all night with my folks or niece nephews is totally out of the scenery , of course.

As a child , i was one among 10 brothers and sisters in a joint family . So buying new clothes or going out pandal hoping that time was a major major attraction , including keeping count of who saw maximum number of Goddeses, who managed to get more number of Rides in the Park, and how many ice creams we got our parents to buy for us … all these used to rule the day. As of today , how many hours of sleep I managed to get, what new restaurants we managed to locate , how many friends oggled at my new Nokia 6708 or whose mobile I envied is what will be in my thoughts , i know.

Its not just me or the people i go around with , its almost everyone , for whom Durga Puja has changed much nowadays . As I write this, its around 6 AM in the morning …. there are stilll 3 puja pandals around where I live , and yet i dont hear any sound of the Dhak . When we were young , not only the sounds of dhak but also puja songs on loudspeakers would be heard even before this time of the day and noises of young kids playing with cap guns and banshees till late night . People dress up not to roam around in streets and diplay their gorgeous clothes , but rather wear designer punjabi’s to sit within specific puja pandals …. because thats where the TV Channels vans and camera men will be.

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