The Pujas back home

As the first day of Durga puja comes to near close, it gets me all nostalgic. Although the only kind of pandal hopping I can afford today is by languidly clicking on puja pictures on Facebook, it still manages to rub off the fun and frolic on me, albeit sedately, and take me back to a time which cannot be re-lived, but can always be remembered with fondness.

The last Durga puja when I was home was in 2008, and in a matter of few days I was to be married off. Hence an otherwise exciting four days of gaiety and splendor had to take a back seat to make way for the marriage preparations. Coupled with the fact that once the first bamboo to form the foundation of the wedding pandal is ceremoniously laid, the to-be bride is to remain indoors till she is officially married off - my dreams of reliving the juvenile puja moments goes out of the window. And that’s exactly how although after a long time I was actually home for the pujas, I did not quite get to soak in its exuberance and participate in pandal hopping as I would have liked.

When I was still a home bred girl, before I, like most of our generation, took off to the far flung metros in India for studies, initially, and then made homes, for jobs, and then chose to settle there, ‘Durga puja’ was an annual event that was much anticipated. And why not, she is probably the only Indian goddess who enjoys the kind of status her male counterparts enjoy, and sometimes some mortals too, in faraway lands, in the South of India. Well, ahem, that, for later. Coming back to the pujas, the unfortunate ones who do not make it home during the pujas, thanks to commitments to work, studies etc., still manage to drop by in the city pandals, soon to realize that nothing can beat the festivities at home, specially the celebrations in the neighborhood pandal. The pandal across the road, the one round the corner, the one one has felt loyal to one's entire childhood, holds a special place in our hearts, and no matter how removed we are from those environment today, it takes only a little deliberate reminiscing to miss those days like I do today.

This takes me back to my neighborhood pandal which was synonymous to Durga puja during my growing up years in Assam. The fact that the mere mention of the pujas conjures up images of that particular idol, speaks for the way our neighborhood puja grows in us. Although, being the shy kid I was, I did not quite go out there with my pistol aiming fire shots at everyone – something even the girls were given to doing during the pujas. Infact I found it tad annoying and childish with every young thing pointing a pistol at you and too sure to be spared of admonishing keeping with the spirit of the puja. So if the cousins have come over that particular puja, which made quite a handful of us, we would go from one pandal to the other, wedged in between the other in the car, till our knees and heels would scream bloody murder! But as I grew a little older, I started enjoying certain liberties – 'hanging out', though only during the day, with my girl friends. I must have been in my seventh/eighth grade. The time when you learn the various arts – of eyes reaching out to meet the other pair, of casual harmless flirting, of gazing and being gazed at etc. Such rendezvous were spearheaded by my beloved friend, let’s call her, N. Under the aegis of N, me along with a handful of us, experienced eye to eye contacts with nimble juvenile boys who would be as nervous about eying the good stuff as we would and flounder all rules of the trade. That went on for a year or two; soon I outgrew the excitement that existed  the first time. So the eying of the good stuff was done from inside the car, as we would navigate our way out in the seamless traffic - on the rear glass reflection, through tainted windows etc. Here I remember a rather cheeky cousin of mine asking her father to take to the commerce college puja in Guwahati since that had most of the eye candies, which if rumors are to be believed, was obliged to. Sometimes it pays to be honest and forthright I guess. Hmmmmmm. Then there would be certain ‘special’ ones that you would look forward to catch a glimpse of, and the feeling, you know, was mutual. Sometimes you would spot him, that would keep you grinning for the rest of the evening, and sometimes, damned traffic, you would miss sighting him for a whisker, leaving you wondering if he was as wantonly looking out for you. And then I reached a stage when my brother’s generation was fast catching up; the first time my parents let him ‘hang out’ with his friends all by himself did not go down very well with me, since needless to say, he being the boy, he got to enjoy the ‘liberties’ tad early. And even before I knew it was time for me to pack my bags and take off to a different place for my college! In between those years, I did visit over puja, and I did make trips to the usual suspects for pandals, but something was missing – those friends, who meant the world to you, who with their expert advice cajoled you to loosen up a bit, and make way for the wayward boys, those friends had taken off to some other place just like you. In a matter of time, Durga puja lost its special place in my heart, but it never lost it's charm.