Ma is here

Bengal's biggest festival, Durga Puja (worshipping of Goddess Durga), has kicked off from today. Goddess Durga, our mother, is here. As a manifestation of 'Shakti' she embodies the victory of good over evil.

Every festival that we Hindus celebrate has legends and stories woven around them and here Ma travels to earth, after defeating the demon - Mahishasura or Mahish the demon (asura). She is visiting her parents and is accompanied by her four children. The celebrations are spread across six days ('Panchami', 'Sasthi', 'Saptomi', 'Asthami', 'Nobomi' and 'Doshomi') and no Bengali, irrespective of where he stays, can't but feel the religious fervor in the air.

The festivities hide a deeper message where, the actual act of worshipping the Goddess is designed as a huge assimilation exercise. The puja rituals uses different kinds of plants, each with some therapeutic value, water from the sea and the holiest of holy rivers, the various natural foods that we eat and accompanied by music – the soul’s own language. (The Puja’s has its own distinctive drum style). The assimilation attempt, not only brings together all the elements but people of all castes together. It would also be important to note that the demon finds a place along with the Goddess, in the sanctum sanctorum. It goes to illustrate that, while ‘evil’ may not far from the ‘good’, it (evil) need not be despised but instead understood, won over and forgiven.

While we all get lost in the festivities – feasting, pandal hopping, staring at jaw dropping pandal designs, lighting arrangements etc we also need to go back to the original message – that God resides in all of us and we need to reconnect the wires that connect us to Him. In this fast paced world the Durga Pujas gives us that window of opportunity to move towards Spirituality – our ultimate goal and destiny and on a more mundane plane reflect on how we can recognize, understand and win over all negative emotions.

While I write all this, I wish I could reconnect and reflect. It’s so easy to get lost in the milieu.

The ‘Chandipur’ Travelogue – II

Starting off from where I had left off in the last post, the next day also saw us at the beach – though not without its share of debate on whether we should go for a short trip to the Nilgiris and Panch Lingaeswar or keep that for Day 4. This time around saw me more prepared for the waves both in what I wore and how to keep my head over water, and I literally mean that! Needless to say we all had a whale of time splashing around in the sea for hours on end.

The afternoon was spent hunting for seashells. We collected a handful of nice shells while Jishnu’s wife (Rupa) displayed a real knack for hunting out great pieces of driftwood in stunning shapes. Evenings of Day 2 and Day 3 were spent drinking rum, gorging on fish and chicken snacks and playing tambola. Chandipur, by any standards is a sleepy, offbeat town and there is precious little that you can do to kill time in the evening. This time around (evening of Day 2) we decided to try out an eating joint outside our hotel. The hotel displayed a long strip of signage announcing its fare with almost everything spelt horribly wrong. It was hilarious and I really rue the fact that I did not take a snap of that board. The food though did not reflect the owner’s English spelling ability and our taste buds were not disappointed with the outcome!

Day 4 was reserved for going around to the Nilgiris, then to Panch Lingaeswar and finally land up direct to the train station. Panch means five and Lingaeswar stands for the Shiv Linga. As we later learnt it was no temple but five naturally formed Shiv Linga’s, to be reached under a waterfall. We had hired a Tata Sumo (a ATV Cab) the previous evening and the driver dutifully reported at the hotel, sharp at 10:30 or so. Loaded our entire luggage and were off. The first stop was at an estuary that connected to the sea. The other bank of the estuary was the forest (sic) where Bagha Jatin (a freedom fighter) had shot a British Officer. Also saw loads of fishing trawlers and the all pervading shrimp/prawn farms.

The road to Panch Lingaeswar is a nightmare and more like short patches of road amidst a long long stretches of, sometimes crater like, potholes. I have never had such a bone-jarring journey ever and it was a pleasure to get off and stretch my femurs (sic). I must admit though that the view made up hugely for all the rattle that we had to endure. Vehicles disgorge their passengers some considerable distance from the Panch Lingaeswar site and you got to walk a good distance to reach the site. Interestingly a dog – we had named him ‘Dharamraj’ after the dog that had followed Yudhisthir, the eldest of the Pandavas, to heaven – escorted us all the way to the temple site and back. Panch Lingaeswar, to me atleast, was a disappointment since I had expected a temple to be there!

The journey back to Kolkata was an enjoyable challenge. We had waitlisted tickets on us and these did not get confirmed. We pushed and shoved our way into a general (non reserved) bogey. Had to beg, borrow and almost snidely steal seats for the ladies and children. Ended up standing all the way to Kharagpur before we landed up with (wew!) seats.

Enjoy the pics!