The Pujas are  here yet again. The streets lined with pandals in stunning bright colours the abode for Ma Durga for a few days. Bengalis probably wait the whole year for this celebratory festival. New clothes, food, bonhomie, chalking up a list of pandals viewed, gawking at the resplendent skill of the artisans. The enterprise and genius is truly mind numbing. If only we channelized it in a continuous stream of work, our state would not be languishing at the bottom of the financial performance pile.
This year I took some guests around the Pujas for three days. And the customary five pujas around my house extended to about 25 in areas beyond a set perimeter. The tour was an emotional back and forth journey in time. I witnessed around me girls in fancy gowns, trousers, men in Tshirts jeans, the food stalls were bohemian – modern. The people milling around me looked like clones from a mall. Where were the days of yore, young girls tripping in sarees, gold earrings, boys in kurta pyjamas, women would don beautiful Kanjeevarams sitting in lazy groups, conversing laughing and partaking in local Pujas, helping the Purohit rustle up the Prasad, getting the idol ready, prepping for the ceremonies. The Pujas have been impacted by the so called OTT culture. The Pandals are unique, the people thronging the pandals reflect a sameness, not so unique.
Times have moved out of the comfort of homes to friends, cafes, chilling out, being cool. Pujas are no longer a paean to the Goddess of power, fertility, peace, it has now  become an occasion for revelry which I feel is superficial and fleeting, exhausting. The happiness with smaller pleasures have now expanded its focus to having more and some, to belonging and problems of identity, to excelling and being better, competing to be the best.  It goes on and on. Even the Goddess is not spared from this one upmanship and competitive spirit. Corporates bestow hefty rewards for bigger, better, greater. The spirit of this mega festival has now become a spree! Not spiritual within but spit and polish without.
Nostalgia, impractical reminiscing, clinging to the past, wondering if some things should stay the same. A generation gap? ing the pandals reflect a sameness, not so unique.
Times have moved out of the comfort of homes to friends, cafes, chilling out, being cool. Pujas are no longer a paean to the Goddess of power, fertility, peace, it has now  become an occasion for revelry which I feel is superficial and fleeting, exhausting. The happiness with smaller pleasures have now expanded its focus to having more and some, to belonging and problems of identity, to excelling and being better, competing to be the best.  It goes on and on. Even the Goddess is not spared from this one upmanship and competitive spirit. Corporates bestow hefty rewards for bigger, better, greater. The spirit of this mega festival has now become a spree! Not spiritual within but spit and polish without.
Nostalgia, impractical reminiscing, clinging to the past, wondering if some things should stay the same. A generation gap