Today is Mahasaptami

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Oct 7: Dressed in all its fineries, Assam has decked up for the grandest festivals of the season - Durga Puja. Today was Mahasashti that marked the formal beginning of Durga Puja and tomorrow will be Mahasaptami. Besides Guwahati, the festival is being organized in a grand way in other parts of the State.    

Different places of the State including Guwahati have been swamped by dozens of heavily-embellished pandals - elegantly draped idols of Ma Durga sitting pretty in them - swarming with devotees and revelers.

People from across faiths and communities are found joining in to hop from one pandal to the other, tapping their feet to the peppy beats of the dhak, pray to the goddess of shakti and savour the many mouth-watering treats on sale at each puja mandap and roadside stalls.

The five-day festival only seems to have become more opulent and exuberant this time around. And that’s evident from the excitement of festival organizers who are awestruck by the number of footfalls that their pandals have been attracting right from the Mahasashti day in different parts of the State.

In Guwahati alone, more than 500 puja pandals have been built. The puja committees with big budget across the State are organizing different competitions for the revelers, with spirituality being pushed to the back burner.

Another significant feature of the Durga Puja in the city is that a huge sum of money has been spent as most of the big budget puja committees have hired artisans, pandal decorators and lighting decorators from other States, mostly from West Bengal. This is not only the scene in Guwahati, but other towns in the State are also organizing the festival in grand manner.

For safety of people, most of the puja committees in the city have installed CCTV cameras and the district administration has taken up different measures for the peaceful celebrations of the festival.