Archive for October 21st, 2007
Work hard …
Durga Pooja was so much fun! Unadulterated entertainment for nearly a week. It was a daily ritual during the festivities to complete homework early evening and head out with buddies to the nearest Pooja.
The ‘D’ Block Durga Pooja was by far the best Rajajipuram had to offer. There was the idol of the goddess, artistically done with all forms of embellishments and hymns being chanted and the ‘Aarti’ competition where contestants would do all sorts of stunts with lighted earthen vessels, often held between their jaws with smoke making them semi-blind every now and then. I have never understood such strong displays of devotion which are so prevalent in India.
A stage would be set for cultural programs – Skits/Song/Dance competitions would go on through the evening.
And then there were food stalls – ahhh … a heaven for gourmets like me.
Not to forget, rows of toy shops and distinct among them was ‘bhaiyajee’s. This man was a rickshaw-puller by the day but during Durga Pooja, he put up a stall each year. His corner was a must stop where I would coax Mom into purchasing some piece of plastic. Yeah, I found them fascinating and had a huge collection along with sis.
The celebrations would culminate with Dussehra, the day when Lord Rama demolished Ravana and which signifies the victory of good over evil, in a bigger context. Huge effigies of Ravana are burnt even today at Begum Hazrat Mahal Park but … we often had better ideas. We did our own Ravana 
Hours of effort would go into designing the outfit, the sword, the crown and loads of other stuff. The rockets had to be positioned strategically to make sure that they took off in the right direction which people suggest is ‘UP’ 
The other crackers were placed anywhere. In the head, belly … just about any place. The underlying principle we stuck to, was – ‘destruction must be uniform’.
Oh … and a prelude to this would be ringing door-bells and when it was answered, wear the most innocent smile and say – ‘Namaste Aunty/Uncle’ and convince them into contributing for the celebrations in the park. This wasn’t a difficult task and almost everyone obliged considering that we were cute lil kids growing up in the neighborhood
All this would happen at the onset of winters when the evenings started to get chilly adding to the party mood. And more often than not, the terminal(why in the world were they called so when they were the first each year, I wonder now) exams were just round the corner. But that hardly diminished the festive spirit. Instead, it was taken up as a tacit challenge to tidy things up on the school and academic front … and then party harder!
