"Durga Puja- A Divine Experience."

"Beautiful blue skies of Autumn with large white soft clouds, the fragrance of "Shiuli Flowers: (also known as night- flowering jasmine) and the beatings of "Dhaks"- all this symbolises only one thing to everyone -It is celebration time, it is Durga Puja time.

Every year with the advent of Autumn, each and every family waits eagerly for the arrival of Goddess Maa Durga. We also have been waiting long for that particular day, when apart from our daily

schedule, waking up early morning and hear the mellifluous chants of Mahisasur Mardini.

The joy of Durga Puja can be sensed right from the day of "Mahalaya". Positive energy starts floating in the air. People are busy in shopping new clothes and making arrangements to welcome Maa Durga.

The day has arrived. It is the time to wear new clothes, worshipping Maa, breaking the shackles of diet restrictions, hopping pandals, gulping yummy delicacies and having fun time with Family & friends.


But Friends, we cannot brush aside the real meaning behind Durga Puja. This Puja is not simply about celebrations and having feast. The actual meaning of the Puja is the celebration of goodness over the evil. it is about the triumph over the evil.

Durga Puja is also a mass believe of the emergence of an almighty saviour as :Maa Durga", when evil was trying to take over the goodness in the universe. So, this puja is much beyond the celebratons and glamour and glitter of pandals.

This year Navami and Dashami were on the same day and my friends planned to go all out in the night and hop around each and every pandal. We started our journey from our own colony puja in Bagdogra ( West Bengal). It was a mesmerizing feeling to se the beautiful pandals and idols of Maa Durga, Ganesha, Kartik, Lakshmi & Saraswati. All people  around the pandal were very happy and their eyes were glittering with positive energy. Everyone was well groomed and dressed up in their own cultural ethnic wear. I went inside the pandal and prayed for the well being of my family and friends.

In the meanwhile my friends planned  to go to Siliguri; as it is said that after Kolkata, Durga Puja is celebrated in Siliguri on large scale. So, we took our Bikes and started our journey. On the way to Siliguri we visited Pandals in Shivmandir and Matigara too.

Finally we reached Siliguri at 11:00PM . It was a mind boggling scene. The roads were jammed by thousand and thousands of people. Not only adults but small children and senior citizens too. We also jumped into that crowd and became a part of it. We were visiting each and every lanes of Siliguri. At 12:30AM we all were starving out of hunger. We had some street foods like Chaat, Veg- Choumin, Jalebis and Gulab Jamun. After catching some breathe we resumed our journey. It took whole night to visit each and every pandal. At 4:30Am we returned back to our sweet homes and slept and were dreaming into heavens.

With this Durga Puja was over and it was Idol Immersion day. This day is also celebrated very ritually. All women smeared vermilion on each other faces in a ritual called "Sindoor Khela:. After that in the evening the idols were loaded in trucks and were taken towards the rivers for immersion. All trucks were accompanied by a

group of people including ladies and children who were dancing on the beats of Dhaks and were playing with colours. They were Chanting, "Durga Maa ki Jay, Durga Maa ki Jay." Some police personnel were also present and following the group to control the traffic and to avoid any unwelcome situation.

After long two hours we reached our destination and the idols were immersed into the water. All people present there were chanting " Aabar Kobe, Bochor Pore; Aabar Kobe,  Bochor Pore, and some were seen with tears in their eyes as Maa Durga was leaving.

Encapsulating, it was some beautiful and magical moments of my life, which I have tried to express with my writings. It is really not possible to express in words what we feel about this Puja. In the end, as you all can see from the below picture, because of the immersion of large number of Idols in rivers, the water is getting dirty. The government should take proper measures to make these rivers clean after the immersion of Idols.