Durga Puja: An Excerpt From My Novel ‘Across Borders’

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Wishing you all a Shubho Mahalaya today with an excerpt from my novel ‘Across Borders’ launched in Calcutta on Mahalaya (Oct 2013).

 

Chapter 3 – ‘The Home That Adopted Me’ (Page 71-74)

Every year during the Durga Puja, Ronjit uncle gave all

women of the extended-family a sari each. I wore mine with

a flourish, for the anjali or collective offering of flower and

prayers conducted by the priest on each of the five days.

With my ardour for dancing, I started the dhunuchi dance, in

offering to the deity. Taking the earthen pot with burning

incense by the handle, I brandished it gracefully. I danced

with agility in front of the goddess Durga and her four children

– Kartik, Ganesh, Lakshmi and Saraswati, to the beats of

the dhak, the traditional drums. My dance recital was well

appreciated by all and even today it is customary for the

students of the school to perform a collective dhunuchi dance

during Durga Puja. The temple where the Puja was

conducted was initially built of mud about two hundred years

back by our ancestors. It is currently a concrete building in

the central porch of the family’s homes alongside the river.

One year when I did not show up for the arati on Ashtami,

the second and important day of the Durga Puja, Ronjit uncle

stormed at his wife Mrinalini, “Where is Maya? Why is she

not dancing?”

“She cannot dance today,” Mrinalini crisply replied, close to

his ears.

“But, why not” Ronjit uncle retorted impatiently, “she is here

somewhere, I just saw her. So why can’t she dance?”

“Maya is here, but cannot come to the temple,” Mrinalini

replied firmly looking into her husband’s eyes, imploring him

to understand. But when there was no sign of his

comprehension, she added briskly “she is menstruating and

cannot come into the temple for the Puja.”

“What nonsense,” Ronjit uncle shot back at his wife, enraged.

“Ma” he said, in reference to Goddess Durga, “is a woman,

isn’t she? Then why follow these stupid customs restricting

her daughters to her presence? You people make a mockery

of womanhood and what Ma represents.”

I was summoned immediately. Mrinalini knew better than to

refute her husband’s wishes. In minutes, draped in the silk

sari Ronjit uncle had given me, I was at the temple dhunuchi

in hand. As I danced to the sounds of the dhaks that evening,

I mentally offered my arati to Ronjit uncle for his

broadmindedness and respect for women, for attempting to

liberate us from traditions imposed on us down the ages.

That morning he possibly also faced the reality that the little

girl he had brought with him five years back had come of

age and was now a woman. Ronjit uncle celebrated Durga

Puja fervently and lavishly, as he was in reality celebrating

Womanhood – the source of life, perhaps in memory of his

own mother who had died at childbirth. He lived his life trying

to fulfil his dream of the emancipation of women, especially

rural woman, starting at home with his own family.

This forward-thinking by a male was remarkable, considering

the position of women then, especially in rural India and

Pakistan. This was when a woman after childbirth was kept

in an outhouse, unable to participate in any activity in the

household. She was not allowed into the kitchen, let alone

cook during her menstrual cycle. A woman, according to

Ronjit uncle, should not have to feel restricted in any way by

her birth. I was to never forget his lessons on the equality of

women, without her needing to act like a man to prove it.

Not only did I live my own life by these doctrines, I would

also bring up my two daughters to think of themselves no

less than any son I might have ever had. One day by my

own initiation, my daughter would light her father’s funeralpyre

at a public crematorium. I would not permit my son-in-law

to do so, merely for being born male, while my daughters

and I stayed home.

Every year at Durga Puja, the new idol was worshipped

wearing Ma Durga’s personal set of real gold jewellery. She

and her children were adorned in them on Shasthi, the first

day of the puja. These were removed and safely put away in

a trunk before the immersion on Dashami, the last of the

five-day Puja, to be used the following year. Ma Durga was

draped in a new, red Benarasi sari every year, which was

then given to any woman in the family who was getting married

the following year, to wear at her wedding. The new bride

wore Ma Durga’s sari, like a daughter would wear her

mother’s on her wedding day. This was in order to invoke

the revered mother’s blessing to bestow on her strength and

good luck. Ronjit uncle had immense faith in the strength of

Ma Durga. He wished upon every woman to find that same

strength and power within herself, with the belief that all

women have an inherent potency, especially in times of crisis.

This was the axiom by which I would lead my life.

For us, it was not merely the celebration of Durga Puja and

womanhood, but of religious harmony during religious

turbulent times. We did not think of the Puja only on religious

lines, but as a coming together of all religions and cultures.

Many Muslims and Christians, both students and teachers

of the school as well as guests, attended the celebrations,

even if they did not take part in the prayers and rituals.

Everyone who attended was served a meal, which had been

consecrated as an offering to the Goddess. Though there

were special cooks to prepare the meals on all five days, we

students served. It was a fulfilling experience, as we

participated wholeheartedly in the festival. It brought

everyone together and was an opportunity to connect. In

my case also, with my estranged father and his second wife,

who came over a few times. Baba even offered to buy me a

sari once, wanting to take me to the local market, but I firmly

declined. I was not about to let him buy off his guilt on a

whim.

 

The Telegraph’s review of Across Borders is in the link: https://www.telegraphindia.com/113091...

 

Sharing the Mahalaya – Birendra Krishna Bhadra (Full) chants in the link :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGClESAGmew

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PS: I took the photos last Pujo in Calcutta .

The significance of Mahalaya: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/wh...