A Rainy Shashti

Yes, yes, I have watched movies, where people are shown not enjoying life at all. People are showing working hard all day dong without sparing a moment for family or party,

Well, I am sitting here in my table, A lot of work is pending and moreover I am not able to code at a single go since I have not done minute coding for a long time, but slowly I am progressing towards a solution

Coming to the main point , Durga this year has come to baaper baari in a nouko. And so it seems that though after a long time I am in Kolkata for  a Durga Puja, I may have to pass it this time.

It is raining and boy when it rains on all these pandals f, made of paper, cloths, and other materials that are supposed to be for your eyes only, and there it goes. So many months of aspirations, and so many people waiting , especially the children. I am 25 now and with time the usual excitement of the pandals and the    baroari pujas has started to ebb a little bit. I usually look for to the colors, the patterns and the material aspect of it. I am sure many will be able to identify with me,

 

Most of my friends in Bangalore, actually look forward to the pujo from the album perspective or a popularity sense. Some take immense pleasure in the fact that they are known as that band that performed in Ulsoor Durga Puja. Well, some of the Durga Pujas in rest of India actually have budgets that surpass many pujas in Kolkata.

One of the pujas in Coimbatore I remember used to be funded by the Marwari community there. There are bigger pujas in Delhis Chittranjan Park than in many big names in Kolkata. Many artisans and protima Shilpis are hired and given tickets to fly abroad to make the idols there.

Last year, one of the Durga Pujas took place in the royal gardens of London, a sheer sight of loyalty with Bengali culture. Let me remind you that many of the big buildings in London are owned by Sylhetis form lower Assam or Bangladesh,

Generations there have worked hard while the local people had wealth to spare, spend and touch luxury which demands a lot from third world countries like us. All these people who went there to London as 4^th grade workers, as manual labor, as taxi drivers, as fruit sellers have now the years by theory of extreme penance and hard work and saving every penny they earned have literally started to demand first grade citizenship there.

 

I believe with the weather shifting , climate changes and global warming, un warranted rains, irregular weather patterns , it will be difficult in future to have any Durga Puja without any rain altogether,

Last year the winter lasted till Februray 20 th, I was here during that time. I think October will continue to remain the rainy season in the Durga Pujas in Kolkata for the next few years to come and it will a sight to see even one sunny day. Our next generation will have to move to other places like Bangalore, Delhi , Mumbai or Hyderabad for better pujas.

 

In Agartala one of my brothers told me the other day that the rains this time were bleak and the Howrah nadi , ( river) is almost dry , people are looking forward towards the rain and it is becoming extremely difficult to manage drinking water for the town.  A town that used to see rains for almost 6 months at a stretch is now dry , it did not take decades for this change. I believe it happened in the last few years. Who says you don’t see a lot of change in nature in one life time.