Shades Of Thirteen

Non-Listed Part ~ "Durga Puja"

Durga Puja-

It's not only a word, it's a hidden happiness in all Bengalis heart, it's a full year waiting festival for all Bengalis, it's a culture and heritage of Bongs, it's can bring instant smile on our lips, it's an inner happiness to us.

We all know what is Durga Puja, for Bengalis and how they celebrate that.

It's about all new dresses for four days, it's hopping pandals whole night long with family and friends. It's all about fun, happiness and enjoyment with Maa Durga.

And I have experienced various type of Durga Pujas in life. Few were painful and sad in my childhood, few were brutal and sad, few were luxurious but sad, few were in hospitals and sad, some were with lots of hope but sad and some were full of love but the saddest.

So the loyal and mandatory emotion that I used to go through in Durga Puja during all my life was 'Sadness' ...

I can't recall a single year during Durga Puja I didn't have cried or I didn't get hurt.

Can't write all of them in one chapter, let's focus on the prime one's I remember.

Let's start with my childhood ones.

No matter how much I try, I can't restore the memories of my Durga puja's before I was 9/10 years old.
So my childhood memories started from when I can recall them from, and that when I was around 11/12 years old.

For me, Durga Puja was always about crackers, cap and guns, junk foods, (affordable chana, chola means green peas with onion and lemon) balloons and hopping pandals with Maa and D walking and a hidden desire of getting new dresses.

Maa always used to try to buy new clothes for both of us, and being the youngest one I used to get one dress extra sometimes from Lamba too. D never complained about it though.

For me and D, Durga Puja was always about, roaming with maa and hopping pandals till our feet's started paining and our maximum time to roam outside was 8.00-8.30 pm.

After 8.30 if we stay outside then Dad, will screw our Puja hopping and will fight with Maa, what was another problem. To avoid fights we used to return home before 8.30pm any how.

During Durga Puja, Dad never skipped or taken any leaves from his daily routine and he never slept without fighting and making us cry, but Maa never bothered of his fight (no matter how hard it was), she always used to take us to new pandals every evenings four days continue.

We two sisters used to get so happy seeing pandals and Maa Durga, walking all around holding our Maa from two side and eating chana and chola.

We used to count while returning home, how many pandals we have visited today and how many we will tomorrow, we make plans for tomorrow immediately.

We used to visit almost all famous  pandals with Maa and that time social life was zero, there were no Insta or FB or WhatsApp, so there were no selfie, no reels and no unnecessary crowds.

Those days life was so real and not reeled.

Everyone, used to visit pandals to get blessings and to see Durga Maa. No matter how rich or poor you are, there were no V.I.P lines, no extra charges to see Maa Durga, everyone was equally treated and get chances to see Maa Durga.

Those days before Durga Puja starts , all my  friends used to show off by gossiping their counts and descriptions of their new dresses and how much they have spent for those.

Me and D always used be silent on those conversations and tried to avoid as we usually had only one or two dress and we used to wear those one or two for four days, where our friends had multiple options for four days.