Durga Puja Celebrations-Revisited Memory Lane

I blog very less these days, though I am still involved in writing, but that’s altogether a different dream. But, thanks to all these social networking site and bloggers camaraderie, I was reminded by my one of my very talented blogger friend that I have almost stopped blogging and should write more frequently.
I had made up my mind, that I would blog on Sunday for sure. I was thinking today, while driving, while eating my Biryani in lunch, and while watching TV , on what should I write. I simply felt, that I haven’t read any books in recent time, have not traveled to any exciting place, had not any unusual incident in my life or relationship, not much is happening in current affairs (Shashi Twitter story is old, and doesn’t interest me at all), have watched Kaminey and Wanted, but did not wanted to write a film review, so was pretty confused on what to write.
I was just sitting and browsing FaceBook and Orkut today, looking at my old photographs and tried connecting with my school friends. This led me to think about the Durga puja celebrations during my school time , and the kind of fun that was attached to it. Being brought up in a small town, Jamalpur in eastern parts of Bihar, the town was full of Bengali population and Durga Puja was the biggest festival celebrated there. I remember, we all used to wait for Durga Puja 1 month before the celebrations and the countdown used to start. The city was full of Railway employess who used to get bonus during the Durga Puja , and they used to do a lot of shopping. The whole market and business used to gain momentum a month before the Puja .
The town had a big ground called Golf ground which was attached to a smaller ground , where a Durga Puja Pandal used to be made. The pandal used to be in typical Kolkata style , with loud Arti, Smoke, Dhol beats, Gulal and Firecrackers. On the periphery of the pandal , there used to be food stalls , of Mutton Chap, Mughlai Paratha, Biryani,Rosogulla, and tea , coffee and ciggarates. These stalls used to be full of customers and there used to be waiting time to get these delicious food itmes.
Everyday from the seventh day onwards , there used to some entertainment night like Orchestra, Dance,Children Competition which used to draw lot of participation and audience. My favorite was Orchestra, as I love live music, and most of the singer used to sing Kishore and RD Burman Songs.
The Pandal looked extremely beautiful, with all the people wearing new dresses, and enjoying with their friends and family. I remember, that was the only festival, when we used to go to market and get new dresses for everyone in the family. We were only allowed to wear these new dresses from Ashthami (eight day of Puja) after the dresses were awakened up. The whole house was awakened through vedic chants on the eighth night. After, the awakening, was done we all used to rush to the pandal and meet our school friends there. Typically, like any other small town, the town used to get sleepy by 9 pm on normal days, but Durga Puja was the only time, when the town did not sleep. I remember just roaming in the pandal , on the streets till 12 midnight and then used to get home by driving my vintage Bajaj Chetak Scooter.
Freedom was there during the festival, and we all used to exploit the freedom given by our families to experiment smoking and eating paan, since we were allowed to come late during the puja days. Also, it was perfect time to know about many beautiful females in the town whom you never thought that they existed also. Needless, to say that it was the right time to impress a girl or a guy.
This celebration style continued for me till I was in my graduation, as most of my friends used to come back home during the Dusshera holidays. Though, the friends count did started reducing soon after, we all passed our board examination and left for higher studies to big cities.
Today , that fun has almost ceased, but still the time cannot snatch away the beautiful memories of the Durga Puja celebration I had at my native place.
Its still the biggest festival for me and will always remain….
Signing Off…a memorable Sunday…