Reminiscence of a Small Town Durga Puja

Kabang Morang

(Kabang Morang is a senior engineering official of Doordarshan Kendra, Itanagar)

In the small town of Bordumsa in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh, Durga Puja has its own festivity, attraction, joys, and importance. It has all the ingredients of a bigger puja; it is nothing less in the gaiety of puja vis-a-vis the pujas in Kolkata.

Many years ago, we as kids used to eagerly wait for the puja by marking the dates on the calendar and start the countdown for the festival - only 59 days left for Durga Puja! It hardly mattered to us though we belonged to a community, which actually does not celebrate Durga Puja; universally, kids are more secular than the grown-up counterparts! Everybody in the small town would buy new dresses to wear during the puja. Parents who were more generous would buy more than one set of a new dress for their kids and the lesser-privileged ones had to contend with a single pair.

Several days ahead of the Puja, marquee called pandal would be constructed at a selected venue. In Bordumsa, there were two puja pandals every year: one adjacent to the then well-known Bordumsa Club in Arunachal Pradesh and the other in the Bordumsa Thursday Market site at the Assam end. They served both as competitors and inspirations between them: which Puja had a bigger Pratima or idol of Durga Ma or which had a larger crowd etc. would be invariably compared and contrasted after the festival. A few days ahead of puja, we would visit, go round the under construction pandals several times a day and climb the pandal structures. We could envisage the joys of Puja even before it arrived. Anticipation is always sweeter than the actual happening!

Generally, before the start of Durga Puja, it was discussed amongst a select few in the town as to how Durga Ma would arrive in a particular year. The more religious would consult the book on Hindu astronomical almanac also known as Panjika for the matter and to know the most auspicious time for puja celebrations. It was learned that Durga Ma arrives on a horse, elephant or boat: whenever it rained during the pre Puja days, I presumed she would arrive in a boat. I used to wonder why a Goddess needed a vehicle at all to come to our world, and if at all she needed one, why would not she choose to come riding on her tiger that is always seen with her statues!

During Durga Puja, there would be school holidays for a couple of days – the first days of Puja, Maha Saptami, generally were not holidays during those times, except when the first day happened to be a Sunday. We the school going kids would rue this fact and swear that we would make all puja days a holiday if we happened to become the Prime Minister of the country. Little did we realize that not all wishes in this world are fulfilled!

During the puja, children would buy toys; a boy child would have toy guns – different qualities of guns used to be sold. Each kid got what his parents bought for him or, sometimes what he could pester his parents into buying. One of my friends, when was not able to cajole his father to buy him a “tiger gun” that looked like a real gun, wailed at the top of his lungs for hours to coerce the father into buying the gun. When the arm-twisting technique had failed, he went on a hunger strike, skipped just a lunch and, later in the same evening was seen flaunting a “tiger gun” in his hand imitating Amitabh Bachchan in Don. Not ashamed was he for the method he had adopted to get his prized possession!

As schools & colleges remained closed during the puja, it was an occasion when all members of a family would gather - it also became an annual event for family photography. All members in the best of their dresses would to go-to a studio for black and white photography. Colour photography had just started then and the technology had not reached the small town yet. A creative and enterprising photographer of the town used to charge a higher amount for color photos, though he would paint them manually! Almost all families had photo albums, which were preserved with pride and the photos taken during Durga Pujas of the past several years would be exhibited whenever any guest visited the household.

At the time Digboi, Tinsukia or Dibrugarh used to be very big towns for us. My mother would never allow me to go even to Digboi lest I should be lost in the crowd of the big town. Maybe, the movies of Nirupa Roy had deeply influenced her - Nirupa Roy, the mother, more often than not, used to lose her children in crowds of some mela or natural calamity in most of her movies. Someone visiting the aforesaid towns used to be as big a thing as he visiting a metropolitan city at the time. If somebody went to Kolkata (then Calcutta), it used to be big news as if he had gone to Washington! During puja, some families would go to Digboi on pleasure trip; enjoy puja, do shopping and watch movie there. At the time, two cinema halls were there at Digboi: the Janata Hall and the Yashoda Hall. Some of my friends after returning from Digboi, would adopt the demeanour of a city slicker which would nearly take a week to wear off!

On Maha Navami, a day before the immersion of the Devi idol, womenfolk of the town used to offer gloomily their final aarti to Durga Ma as the next day Ma would be gone. Many would say, “See the tears of Durga Maa, she is also crying.” I had failed repeatedly to notice any tear on Ma Durga’s cheek despite my best efforts. Nevertheless, I would utter a just audible “yes” so that my devotion to the Goddess was not doubted! My primary preoccupation at the time used to be: why the puja had to end so early!

On the day of immersion, Maha Dashami, in the late afternoon, Ma’s idol would be lifted and placed on a truck with all the male devotees following it doing aarti dances frantically with red cloth or ribbons wrapped around their heads and dhunachi containing burning incense with charcoal or coconut husk in their hands. The group would go to a pre-decided pond and immerse all the idols. Every year, during the course of the journey to the pond and moments before the immersion, someone from the more frenzied lot would suddenly become possessed with Devi Ma and would jump with Ma’s idol into the pond; we would be petrified and bewildered! Someone would pull him out of the pond and bring him to safety. The possessed and his family would feel blessed that Ma had possessed him and it would be the talk of the town for several days to come.

The next day after Durga Puja used to be one of the most disliked days in the school; having caught in the hangover of the festivity, a few had the will to open their textbook. In the following days, in the breaks between periods/classes, there would be animated conversation amongst us about the puja celebrations. On a few occasions, one would shout – only 365 days left for the next Durga Puja!

Also Read: Durga Puja: Eco-friendly Puja Pandal In Guwahati