Durga Puja

Days of the summer vacation were as far from Durga Puja as Siberia is to Sahara. But not for nine or ten year olds! The vacation afternoons were hot and humid - a strong deterrent to playing outside. It was the late sixties or early seventies.

Naxalism was on the rise though as kids we did not understand the threat as yet. But some things were missing - the evening out to the Maidaan, the occasional visits to the restaurants and cinemas in the evening, the staying out after dusk......

But one thing remained constant in Calcutta of the times - the joy of Durga Puja. The entire locality would come together in the Pandals, new dresses, lots of great food, music, plays after the event was over on Dashami. The fear of Naxals vanished, the young would come out without fear, the shortages were forgotten, the slogans and the rallies of the extreme left took a back seat for the month covering Durga Puja.

The sights of the decorated and fearless Goddess, the sound of the "dhaak" (drums) and the smell of special food would effectively drive away the atmosphere of fear for some time. The slight nip in the air would rejuvenate spirit and the gathering of the locals (it was primarily a local affair in those days very different from the commercial event that it has become now!) dressed in finery was something everyone in Bengal looked forward to for a year.

The beginning of the event was marked by recital of the Mahalaya (invocation of the Godess) while it was still dark. The morning "Anjali" (Offering), the "Dhunuchi" dance, the "Sindoor Khela"(application of vermilion on the faces) of women dressed in white saris with red borders as they bid farewell to the Godess at the end of the event - all transported Bengal into a magical world far from the tension, grime and poverty that was fast becoming Bengal.

In absence of entertainment the three friends were left to look forward to the coming Durga Puja, still a few months away. Three friends, oblivious to the religious implications of the event, oblivious to the detailed planning and the organization required to make the event a success - suddenly chanced upon the idea of organizing their own Puja. It is not relevant as to whose proposal it was nor will it be possible to put an exact date to the concept.

Ajit, Rahul and Babloo had grown up together and were as thick as thieves. They had no inkling then that their personalities would develop so differently that it would be difficult to find any common thread that would bind them together in the long run. Later in life they did drift apart - not out of any difference but because of lack of any common ground.

 

One thing was clear - it could not be organized overnight. The planning would have to start now. They were old enough to understand that money would be required. How much, was not clear, as yet! So, they started with a premise - it would be much more than their combined pocket money!

They started with an assumption of Rupees Fifty - a princely sum in those days, specially for young children. When one could travel in a tram for seven paise, in a bus for ten paise, a Dosa would cost forty paise - fifty rupees would surely go a long way.

The planning was detailed out over many days because they tried to break up costs and activities in as many workable parts as possible. The seriousness with which they set about the task would have done anyone proud.

The first task was to fix a location. There were many possibilities - it could be Babloo's garage, or the empty plot behind his Mama's house. There was another possibility - on the footpath in front of Ajit and Rahul's home. There were pros and cons to each.

The plot behind Babloo's house was ideal - it was large and comparatively clean - not many bushes to clear and fortunately not many people used it to dump their rubbish and waste. It would have the ideal location to attract visitors but was too open to make crowd management a potential problem. There could be another problem - that of senior boys from the locality trying to hold their own Puja - which could lead to a potential confrontation.

However, if we could rope in Tapas, this problem would go away. Tapas’ father owned a factory which employed the people living in the slums adjacent to New Alipore. The children of the employees were a rough lot and quite numerous so much so that even the local senior boys (who came from so called "genteel" families) were wary of confronting them.

The slum children were devoted to Tapas - one call from him and they would be behind him before one could blink. The trio were reasonably confident that Tapas would agree to join the enterprise.

There was also the problem of providing lights - generator sets were then a rarity in Calcutta - a far cry from the times of the next decades when they became more common than fish on the Bengali plate! However, they could get the temporary connection from the adjacent houses.

The problem of possible rain was a little more difficult to solve so other options had to be considered. However, the scales tipped in favour of the plot once a large tarpaulin was discovered in Ajit's garage.

The second option was good - but posed some negatives. Babloo's garage was reasonably large - it could hold four Ambassador cars and had its opening right on the road so that visibility would be good - but not as good as the plot. The problem of protection from rain was non -existent, and cost on decoration and pandal would also be lower. Security during the night would also be better than at the plot - one could not leave the idol of the Goddess and the rest to the mercy of thieves over five nights.

The problem would arise with getting permission from Babloo's grandfather - a real cranky old man. He would not say no but neither would he say yes - instead he would raise the issues of alternate parking for the cars, getting permission from the tenants (who incidentally would not say no if the old man agreed). Babloo assured us that he would try to get him around but the assurances lacked conviction.

The third choice was not seriously discussed. Puja on the footpath was not very attractive - even to their inexperienced eyes and there would be a limitation on the size too. Whatever was to be arranged for the Puja in the empty plot of land would also hold true on the footpath.

The next point to be pondered was the things that were actually required for the Puja. There would have to be an idol, of course. And flowers, some new cloth for covering the pandal, the tarpaulin was already available. They would also require a raised platform, incense, sweets everyday some decoration for the pandals, matting or carpet for the floor and a pundit (priest)! Flowers, fruits, cloth, incense, sweets posed not much of a problem - they were all available in the local market.

The idol posed a bigger challenge - it was difficult to agree on the right height. It would have to be bigger than they were, considering that it represented a Goddess, but how much bigger? If it was just a little bigger, it would not be impressive enough, if it was too big, it would be difficult to carry.

Arguments were put forth and much excitement was generated but no conclusion could be arrived at. Finally, after many sittings it was decided that the matter would be decided by the vendor and after they could pin down the actual number of volunteers.

The next point to be decided was whether the idol would be procured locally or from Kumartuli. Kumartuli was the centre of artisans of the highest class but was quite far. How far - they were not sure. But idols from Kumartuli were a class apart - everybody said so.

Armed with all this data - the trio were now having real doubts about the adequacy of the budget. With all this to be arranged, Fifty Rupees seemed a bit low. Therefore, it was unanimously hiked to Seventy Rupees! To get a more accurate idea the three decided to accompany their parents to the market everyday so that the idea of the prices prevailing in the market were more realistic.

This was to be followed diligently so that they did not run out of money halfway through the Puja! Did they follow through! Not a single day passed without noting some new price data in the "Puja" notebook.

The next issue to be sorted out was getting the actual funds and volunteers. A balance needed to be arrived at - too few volunteers meant lower contributions and lesser hands, too many volunteers meant more differing opinions and a real risk of the credit being hijacked.

Only the most reliable and controllable were to be drafted in. There were many arguments about the correct number of volunteers and the potential candidates. Names were added and struck off - too lazy, too meek, to dominating, too ambitious, not enough effort, would not get permission from his parents.....the list of criteria was long and constantly changing. Tapas was an asset if the Puja was to be organized in the vacant plot, but would be a liability if it was held in the garage.

They also needed a receipt book. The other Puja organizers always gave a receipt when they came to collect contributions or "chanda" as it was called. A close scrutiny of the receipts collected from their homes revealed that their Puja also required a name and identity along with a venue to be mentioned on the receipt. Therefore, the venue would have to be finalized before the collection started. A name was to be decided on. This was quite tricky!

Some suggested names were not impressive enough, some were impressive but difficult to spell! Dictionaries were consulted, meanings understood, appropriateness weighed but the task seemed more difficult than envisaged.

Finally, after hours of brainstorming and heated arguments they compromised on the solution - it would be called the "O Block Puja" - a name, which was relevant, simple yet elegant and easy to spell as well as remember.

The list of potential contributors was drawn up. The contributors were classified as Big, Medium, Small, Uncertain, Difficult and Unlikely. They also listed the probable amount of contributions against each name - the highest coming from the Kedias - a handsome sum of Twenty Rupees with the average being about Two rupees.

The final tally revealed that they would probably be able to collect about Two Hundred and Fifty Rupees!

This was much more than they had anticipated (the revised budget standing at Seventy Rupees) and there were doubts about the validity of their list and estimates. Surely, Two Hundred Fifty Rupees was too much. They had never seen so much money and surely, one could not spend so much for a Puja!

With so much money they could feed more than six hundred people a Dosa each - a full meal! But they decided to stick with their estimate and if money was left over, they could always use it next year and give some to charity too.

The real problem was now before them. Where would they get the money to have the receipts printed? They did not have enough between them because their piggy banks sounded quite empty. The solution was to start with their immediate family and immediate neighbours - people likely to shell out money without a receipt.

That would give them seed funding. They decided to approach Babloo's youngest uncle first - a rather jovial guy with experience of having organized a few Pujas and a person who could give them sound advice.

It proved to be a wise choice. He suggested that they should not waste money on printing receipt books unless it became absolutely necessary. Since it was to be a Puja targeted toward the residents of one lane, everyone would know where to go.

Most people would not ask for receipts as they were known to all and sundry in the lane and if someone did, one could always provide a signed receipt on a plain piece of paper. He went through their plan and nodded his head when he approved, offered a few suggestions here, a few changes there. He really fine-tuned the entire plan in one sitting.

The time was drawing near. They set about the twin tasks of getting volunteers and collecting the "chanda". Some of the potential volunteers just laughed it off, some agreed but did not do anything, but finally a team of five including the original promoters was ready. This automatically fixed the size of the idol to not more than four feet high. Anything bigger would be too difficult to carry to the pandal and for the immersion.

They went to each house in the lane and some in the next. They also discovered that their initial classification of potential contributors was reasonably accurate from the promises and declines that they received. But, in actual fact, no contributions were coming in!

Promises would not be enough, actual cash was required!

They redoubled their effort. It was hard work and the Pujas were drawing near. Some organizers had already come and collected from their homes. However, as the days drew nearer it was quite obvious that probably they would not have the money in time to actually organize the Pujas that year.

Could not be helped!

They had tried. And, learned a lot in the process.

No matter!

Maybe next year!

The Puja came and went. They enjoyed it as they had done in the past. The wistful longing to organize their own Puja remained with them for some time but gradually faded away.

Rahul did not know that a few miles to the east a little girl and her group of her friends mostly boys a little older than her would be bitten by the same bug a few years later with slightly better success.

The group had succeeded in collecting fifty paise in all, which obviously was not enough to organize a Puja. 

With some guilt in their hearts, they had done the next best thing. 

Hiding behind an Ambassador car in their lane, the group had partaken of a packet of "begun bhaja" (deep fried aubergine) as a mark of respect for their contributors.

Rahul also did not know then that he and the girl would tie their fate as a couple many years later!