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The
goddess is portrayed in the traditional Bengal style nowadays,
as a reaction to the many distressing innovations in her
appearance recently. There is also a hefty prize offered
by for the best traditional image and the swing is back
to basics. The popular actress of the moment was usually
the model for the face, with Hema Malini in particular becoming
a sort of basic template for about fifteen years at one
time. Sometimes the goddess was shown in jeans and packing
the latest in automatic firepower, which outraged a great
many. However the artistic tradition of India was always
casting the gods in contemporary clothing and weapons so
there is really nothing very wrong about it. In the year
of Jurassic park, the goddess apparently had misplaced her
traditional mount, the lion, and was shown riding a dinosaur!
As can be seen form all these examples the goddess is not
regarded as remote from the daily life of the people but
very much a taken for granted part of normal existence.
The
festive air begins a week before the actual puja days with
Mahalaya, the announcement that the Devi Durga has left
the Himalayas and is traveling to Bengal. There is a traditional
radio programme that broadcasts hymns invoking the Mother,
and by far the most famous version was by Birendra Krishna
Bhadra. His voice was so powerfully evocative of the Devi,
though slightly nasal, those even years later Calcuttans
get goose pimples when they recall it. As with the other
slightly askew nature of the entire festival, Bhadra was
an agnostic and he had millions of believers getting up
at four a.m. to listen in and be swept away in a tide of
devotion. A suggestion that he was getting old and should
be replaced once outraged all of the faithful. He has passed
away now. However the oddest sight during the entire festival
is that of Marxist party cadres setting up stalls in the
areas near the Pandals and distributing revolutionary literature!
Nobody seems to find it the slightest bit incongruous.
For the three and a half days the festival lasts, the city
of Calcutta shuts down. Even the newspapers have a holiday
except for The Statesman. The yearly bonuses are paid out
round this time so all businesses have a great boom period
of sales for about a week preceding the event. It s also
a great time for the culture vultures as there is a glut
of literary output with every publication worth its name
bringing out a special volume for the pujas. New music albums
too are timed to launch with the puja fever so that sales
are maximized. If a song happens to become popular at this
time it will be played over and over again through loudspeakers
until the entire suffering neighborhood knows the lyrics
by heart.
During these three days, night and day are inverted. People
sleep during the day and at night they come out in the millions,
no exaggeration, and wander from pandal to pandal, praying
to the Image of the Divine Mother. A great many people cover
the entire city on foot in those three days. It is one great
peal of Joy, and the stern rules about late nights and intermingling
of young people are relaxed for the nonce. People are in
their year's best finery and everybody is determined to
have a good time. Families visit with a vengeance and an
energy that is truly breathtaking. The religious aspect
is rigorously maintained in a daily schedule of many minor
and major services. Once the Puja and immersion is over
the city literally lapses into gloom for while. However
there is always next year to look forward to.
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