Thursday, October 09, 2008

Durga Puja & Vijayadashmi

Today was Vijaydashmi, the last day of the Durga Puja. This year is the first time I realized that how much I enjoyed this particular festival. For the first time in my life, I have not seen a single Puja Pandal. And I really missed it. From the times I remember, Durga Puja has been the most important festival in my life. Having lived mostly in the eastern parts of the country, Durga Puja was the the time for a week to fortnight holiday from school, college. The things that I remember are the pandal hopping, all day and even night whether with parents, cousins or friends; the beating of dhaks, the huge pandals, the various images of the goddess, eating the bhog-prasad. Even the weather is quite pleasant at this time of the year. And this was true for all the places I have lived, Patna, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and even Duliajan. But sadly the same cannot be said for Mumbai. Mumbai may celebrate Ganesh Puja and Janmashtani with great fervor. But I still miss the Durga Pujas.

Anyways, I had a day off from work today which was spent in basically doing nothing. Watched a few downloaded episodes and followed the cricket matches. International cricket returned after some time. And there were interesting things on the field. Ponting finally scored a century in India, though after Day 1, the match is still in the balance. A depleted Bangladesh beat New Zealand for the first time in an ODI. Now will be following that series with more interest.

Being a festive holiday, quite a few SMSes went to and fro today. There were generally the usual ones wishing Happy Durga Puja/Vijaydashmi/Dussehra. But the one which stood apart from others read " Happy Vijayadashmi!! May you also win over your bosses as lord Rama won over Ravana :) "

P.S. Its now time to change the "Missing Pujas" status from my Gtalk and Orkut accounts.

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