This Puja has been the most different ever. By this time I don’t think you need to be told why it has been so! Take for instance the Mahalaya. Back at home, I never woke up at 4 to listen Birendrakrishna Bhadra. Maa used to put the radio on, later on the TV too. I used to open my eyes only once & again fall asleep. This year, Sucharita got the Mahishashurmardini CD, all the Bengali girls planned to get up by 4 in the morning, go to the terrace & play it loud in the laptop. With time, various alterations came to the plan. 4 AM became 5, location shifted from terrace to Sucharita’s room & the number of girls lessened from 7 to 4 & I’m feeling very proud to write that I was among the 4 bengali girls who didn’t back out at the last moment! B-) was fun as we were listening to Mahishashurmardini, chatting, having ‘Sholo Ana’ chanachur & badam till 6.30 & again going off to sleep till 8.30. The common point which revolved around the discussions of mahalaya morning was, we’ve become closer to our culture & tradition. We never bothered to wake up & listen to it religiously which we actually did. But the anti climax was…we had class for the whole day. :-(
Then came Puja. More than half of the Bengalis went back home, to Kolkata. I tried to enjoy as much as possible. Morning was same as any other Sunday morning. Lyadh khawa, carried on by cleaning up my room, washing etc. etc. In the afternoon, I put on my new purple top from Sarojini, did a little make up & along with Neha, Bahni & Jaya went first to the beauty parlour near Taapti. Got a complete make over which was followed by evening snacks of pakodas, tea & goja. After that we went out for our venture to find out the puja pandal in JNU. We found it, located near the Godavari hostel. Simple décor & idols but the only thing that felt strange was that the idol faces were still covered with clothes! Generally the faces are revealed in the Shoshthi morning only! Anyway, after coming back, I was bestowed with complements from various people! It felt nice! Saptami was class as usual. In the afternoon, I set off for Baby Mashi, my local guardian’s place in Kalkaji, very close to Chittaranjan Park. I reached there by 6.30. We went to see the pandals in C R Park, Nabapally & C R Park Cooperative Puja. Heard Shraboni Sen to sing & was elated to find out that Siddhartha Da was on the tabla. I miss my Sunday morning music classes! :-( Had ice gola chuski & good Bengali barir khabar! I gave Ashtami morning Anjali in the closest Nabapally pandal after which we went to Kalibari. With the Bengali crowd, perfect Durga Protima, Bengali music, and Bengali hoardings, it felt as if I’m in Kolkata only! It felt different, it felt nice and it felt sad. Ashtami night spent in C R Park Kalibari puja, listening to Shubhankar Bhaskar & Rezwana Choudhuri was a real treat for ears! I’vent been that lucky in Kolkata. I took an off on Ashtami & today’s Nabami, I’m attending classes. No plans yet.
Another difference this year is that, instead of going to puja pandals in the morning after getting dressed & decked up, I’m going to class room. What a tragedy! :-( Only good this is that, our classes are getting over at 2.30, after which we are free. Faisal Sir gave us Sewaiya treat! I don’t know how things will turn out to be in the next year, but this year, it was like this. Don’t feel that sad, it wasn’t that bad! I’ve enjoyed Puja much better than many others. I sign out with the hopeful note…Aschhe bochhor abar hobe! Shubho Bijoya in advance folks! :-)
