Mahalaya - reminiscences

October 7th 2010 was just another Thursday for me. I woke up as usual, went to work, spend the whole day testing software and then came back home, pottered about with some household chores and went to sleep. However, what I missed out was that it was Mahalaya. 4 years back the situation would have been very different.

Anyone who grew up in Calcutta knows the significance of Mahalaya. It is the new moon of the month of Ashwin and it heralds the Durga Puja - the greatest festival of Bengalis all over the world. On that day people do some religious ceremonies but the most significant part is a radio oration that takes place in the early hours of dawn - "Mahishashuramardini". In the CD of this radio program, they say the genre is "Bengali devotional" but that makes it sound so clichéd. This, though is a recitation of Sanskrit shlokas and is very much spiritual, the whole thing is much more social than religious and is loved by everyone, including atheists :-)

At 4 in the morning, Bengali households wake up. Putting their hands out from the mosquito nets they turn on the radios...the program starts. From when it started in the 1930s, it was transmitted live. The rich voice of Sri Birendra Krishna Bhadra fills the early morning. Accompanied with that are various Sanskrit chantings and Bengali songs all praising the Goddess Durga.

From when I can remember, I used to wake up and see the sky showing the early colors of dawn, I would listen sleepily to the Sanskrit mantras- the story of Hindu mythology how Durga was created - as a personification of power to kill the powerful demon Mahishashura. As I listened to it, my mind would wander off to the Himalayas and I visualized how the Gods created Durga, how they gave her divine weapons and how she finally won the war against evil. Listening to the songs, sometimes drowsing off, I would think of the festivities that would start within a week, the new clothes and shoes, where I would go pandal hopping with my friends and family...

The sky turns cornflower blue here and wispy clouds float by, I have seen gigantic "kash-phool", I can feel a "himer parash" in the morning breeze and the grass of my back yard glistens with dew in the early morning...but nowhere do I find the warmth of Durga Puja ... gone are those days of Puja shopping, of "Pujoy chai notun juto", of all night pandal hopping, of gulping phuchka, sitting at Maddox Square with friends, of riding ferris wheel (we called it a Giant Wheel) with my mom and sister, visiting relatives after Bijoya Dashami and many many many happy times...