Durga Puja - Redefined

Though the durga puja is widely celebrated all over West Bengal, all over India and all over the world where Bengali reside, it is Kolkata where one can enjoy the excellence of Bengali in conducting this Puja.

This single sentence will raise a lot of eyebrows towards this post, the writer of this post as well. Non-Bengali indians celebrate the Durga Puja according to the real mythological calander, as they start this puja from the first day of "Devi-Paksha", "Mahalaya", the first day of these 15 days of goddess Durga at her home place. The non-bengali Duga Puja is according to the rituals started by "Sri-Ram" while he was in war with "Ravana", the king of Lanka who stole "Sita". The non-bengali Durga idol has 8 hands in contrast to the idol with 10 hands worshiped by Bengali. Gujrati people stats "Garwa", a dance form around fire, each night from "Mahalaya" to "Maha-Nabami", the nine days festival, named as "Nava-Ratri", followed by the symbolic killing of "Ravana", on the 10th day, the "Duserra", "Bijoya-Dashami" for Bengali. Thus, the Durga puja, started by "Sri-Ram", turns into a Puja of "Sri Ram" or "Lord Krishna" for non-bengali people.

Many of the readers will agree that Bengali are considered to be the most emotional of all the inhabitants of India. The emotion during the time of Durga Puja remains so high that, be it outside of West Bengal (Delhi, Mumbai, etc.), outside of India (as in Bangladesh, USA, UK, everywhere), they worship goddess Durga like they do at Kolkata, West Bengal. The memories of Durga Puja in West Bengal the minds of the older generations are still very alive in most of the Bengalis around the world. The changes from "normal" puja to "theme" puja, which orginated from Kolkata, is now being widely followed all over the world whereever possible. Let me explain the "theme" concept in a few words. The theme can be any concept that will be depicted in the external and internal decoration of the "Pandal", the place where the Durga Idol will stay, along with the Durga Idol itself. The theme can be a very rural picture of a almost unknown culture of West-Bengal, say, the "Swantal" village (a renowned tribe of West Bengal). So, entering into the "Puja", you suddenly will feel that you are at a Swantal village. The goddess idol may be created with blakish wood as the other idols of gods and godesses worshiped by the tribes. The theme may be "Tom & Jerry", where, other than the actual idols of the Goddess and her family members, everything is to be with a touch of "Tom & Jerry". In the attached photo, you can visualize, the idols are even designed as the idols of "Radha - Krishna" as depicted in paintings found at "Rajasthan". Nowadays the "Theme Puja" is almost everywhere, even at Delhi, Mumbai, Nagpur, etc. The Durga-Puja, has been being changed into "Theme-Puja" in most of the cases.

Only except the Puja conducted by "Ram-Krishna-Mission"s all over the world, much emphasis towards the correctness of the "Durga-Puja" according to the perfect schedule and perfection of the recitations of the "Mantra"s are avoided in most of the "Puja"s. Signifying, Puja is more for relaxation, rejuvenation, recharging of energy for the Bengali people, more than a ritual. My point is, be it Bengali Puja or not, we are moving away from the concept of "Puja" in general as a ritual of Bengali hindus and enjoying that very much. It's the enjoyment, the reunions, the freedom, the relaxation, the rejuvenation of vitality, that matters.

Love - Aaj Kal - The truth

Are you a responsible daughter?
Yes.
Yeah jawab such hai. The answer is true.
Is your boyfriend 13 years younger than you?
Yes.
Yeah jawab such hai. The answer is true.
You feel guilty in saying "no" to his marriage proposal?
Yes.
Yeah jawab such hai. The answer is true.
Do you regret in compromising your carrier twice for your family?
No.
Yeah jawab such hai. The answer is true.
Do you still love your ex-husband?
Yes.
Yeah jawab such hai. The answer is true.
...
Do you really love your boyfriend?
Yes.
Yeah jawab such nehi hai. The answer is not true.

These questions were asked to "Rupa Ganguly", the renowned actress of Kolkata, in the renowned reality show "Such Ka Samna" (Facing the truth.) in star plus. The game show had it's final episode of this season. As we already know that this reality / game show has become such a controversial one that many of the renowned journalists in different news media has written against it and wanted this show to be banned. It seemed that knowing the truth about ones life, many near ones of the person facing "Such ka samna" had to change their attitude, their lifestyles, their views to the concerned person. Some even tried to commit suicide knowing about the past life of their beloved ones and feeling betrayed especially in commitment like marriage,love and sex lives.

I am not a fan of Rupa Gangualy. I didn't know much about her lifestyle, though according to the local film magazines, her lifestyle is pretty controversial. I adored her way to live her own life with full of responsibilities both as an actress and a family woman, yet keeping a balance between the two. The way she justified her answers were really very logical and touching. Even the host Rajeev Khandelwal got very much impressed knowing the attitude of her towards life.

I am writing this just to agree with a viewpoint of her's. First, she loves someone who is younger than her. Then she denies to marry him, though she is staying with him. Then she admits that she is not very sure about having a marriage like institution with her present boy friend, she doesn't want to spoil his life. She wants him to wait another 10 years, to let him be of 40 and her 53. Good decision. Then she admits that she still loves her ex-husband and when explaining about the mistake (lie according to the polygraph test) the machine made about the truth about loving her boyfriend, she admits that, at the age of 42 the word "love" to a man/woman is very "flexible" a concept. Though she believes that she loves her boyfriend, she does that with a confusion, an indecision in her mind. That's why, it has been detected as a lie.

I think she is correct. "Love" is a feeling of a man/woman that changes with time. Leaving aside a "love" towards all other relations and all other living or non-living things, even if we stick to the meaning of love as loving a spouse, partner, beloved, boy or girlfriend, the meaning changes with time. A person who fall in love may fall in love many times and each time the feeling of insecurity increases or decreases depending upon the partner. And, in my opinion, it's nothing to do with responsibility. Most of the apparently responsible persons have the "other man" or "other woman" in their lives. It actually depends upon the lifestyle you are going to choose, your commitment to your partner or spouse. Many a people get habituated to live a special love life beyond their normal love life. The attraction to the "prohibited" is the "key" of such relationship, mostly ruining the base of the life and families of many individuals.

That justifies two things. Love is somewhat a chemical (hormonal) reaction in human body. It's a habit to fall in love, but love itself is not a habit.
Though even Rabindranath Tegore has mentioned in many of his works that "love" can be divided into two or more "lover"s (in "Sesher Kabita"), and he is correct absolutely, one should avoid to grow the habit of falling in love. So no "Love Aaj Kal"(Love now and then), love Aaj, love Kal.

The Inspiration - or lack of it

Creative work needs inspiration and motivation. The motivation generally comes from the inspiration. Motivation, followed by devotion, creates a really good work of creation.

Why am I writing this? Most of the time, people feel less motivated and that's because lack of inspiration for them. Very unlucky few get motivated from a peculiar inspiration that drive them to do wonders. That inspiration comes from their own nature. They have a pen they write, left with a paintbrushes and colors they will start painting, the insatiable desire to work, drives their whole life to remain creative.

Please have a look at the works of Vincent Van Gogh, the colors of his works came from a kind of devotion, the motivation and the inspiration that was astonishing. Most of his life, his works has not been recognized for some reason or other. Just like the great mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan who struggled his short lifespan to know the infinity. I dearly love the story of poet Sukanta Bhattachrya, who was inspired by the experience as an active communist worker.

The similarity in the lives of all these people of extraordinary quality and enormous mental strength died in their 20s or 30s.But, all of their lives are so inspiring to us, to be more productive, till we live.

I also feel a similarity of Poet Jibanananda Das with them, but will write some words about him, some other day.

And last but not the least, the inspiration to write about my likings, my opinions, my views, in a straight cut manner in this blog has come from the blog Agnitrisha, where the writer writes whatever she likes, not bothering about the readers.

Vultures

They are rarely seen now. In our childhood, we have seen them flying high in the sky, showing a special white patch on the back of their wings. That was the identification of them from far away. They signify "death". Mostly we used to see them when there was a visible corpse of mammal, mostly cows. They used to keep a vigil for corpses, and like scavenger birds like "crows" they also used to clean up the dead body just by eating it.

I have used the past tense all around, as they cannot be seen regularly now. I have last seen them around 15 years back from a near distance. One can visit the zoos to find these extinct species of birds.

Fortunately, I have seen them once again today only. That too, in Kolkata. Believe it or not, three four vultures were sitting on a street light on the way to sector V, through Rajarhat.

Now the question is where did they come from? Where are the vultures nowadays?

In my opinion, the vultures have been extinct as a species in birds, but in species of mankind, they are increasing in number. They are everywhere, every nook and corner of your daily lives, in different camouflage, and waiting for you to be in real trouble. Once in trouble, they will surround you,nibble you, till death.