Durga Puja is celebrated from Sasthi to Dashami usually in West Bengal or at least it used to be. But nowadays it’s a reason to pray and worship whenever Prathama comes. Usually, we meet up with friends in Malda, the day before going to Kolkata to meet family and more friends. Today’s blog post is written by my daughter who is a contributor to the blog sharing how she spent her puja this year. This is a four-part series but we are still thinking of different modes to share the story with you.

Hello, my dear readers! This is little Miss A. Misra signing in to tell you my story of the puja holidays.
We boarded Gaur Express on the night of 19th October. After having made the bed, I waited till the train jolted off till I laid down to sleep. It hardly seemed any time at all when I heard my parents up and about. Realizing that we would reach soon, I got up quickly. We got into a car and went to my grandmother’s house to pick her up.

Because we wanted to offer Pushpanjali to Goddess Durga, we didn’t eat anything. After a short rest we all bundled into the car yet again with tons of luggage. It was a tight squeeze and we were rather uncomfortable! But what’s a little discomfort when you are excited?

We journeyed to our flat about 20 minutes away in stiff positions with bags and parcels. The good thing was it was right beside my friend’s complex!

Let’s call her– Jaya. It’s not her real name, but my mother is strict about privacy stuff. So my friend and her family could pop over anytime and we would visit too. She is 3 years my junior, but we have known each other for a long, long time. Jaya even came to Malda several times on weekends to spend time with us. Anyway, both of us were happy about that. We were neighbors!

After stretching our legs and carrying all the luggage to our home. I felt happy to be there and excited. We took a bath changed into new clothes, and went down to the pandal to offer pushpanjali to the Mother Goddess. We even had some nice prasad, consisting of apples, sandesh, and kheer. There was a small park, right beside it. It had a rocking horse, a see-saw, and even a mini jungle gym!

I mean, it wasn’t that big of a jungle gym. But it still had a twisty slip, a straight slip, stairs, a rock climbing area, and a cool lookout above. This was perfect!

Glancing back longingly at it, I went back home to have paratha, tarka dal, sweets, and a lovely masala chai.

We unpacked our luggage after the cleaners’ came and went, I had a short nap, of barely 20 minutes. Then, because another friend of mine was coming, I tidied the room and fixed my hair. He came about an hour later ( there was loads of traffic) and we played for a long time, both in my home and in the park. He went home, I should think, at around 6 pm. Just when I thought the fun was coming to an end Jaya came over! Gosh, what a perfect day.

As the park was just down a couple of stairs, we all went over there. Me, Jaya, and many of my fellow neighbors together played Lock and Key, in which the jungle gym would become intensely useful. If the lock would be trying to catch us from the ground, while we were in the lookout, we would stay leisurely away, occasionally trying to irritate him/her to give up and say the code word ( ours was ” chicklets”. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a hard chewing gum.). However, if the lock changed their mind, and came up via stairs, we would all slide down the slips, yelling. The lock might try to follow there, but he/she can also try to catch the ones left behind.

Now, two things can happen in this scenario. 

Either you can try to get down the slide as fast as you can, or you can catch hold of one of the bars directly above the rock climbing  ( it was kept there for support) and hold onto it in one hand, and jump down to the ground. The last one was decidedly dangerous, but the height wasn’t much. Overall, we had a pretty good time. Around 10 of us playing together. What fun!

At half past midnight, my mimi(aunt) and mesho(uncle) arrived from Shillong. I was fast asleep and greeted them later. Me and Jaya’s family had plans to pandal hop together at dawn on Saptami. It was very exciting and I was busy dreaming when Mimi and Mesho came.

We got up at 4.45 am and somehow managed to set off at 5.15 am! We had great fun. Doing the distance from one pandal to another on foot, seeing the beautiful pratimas of goddess Durga, chatting, taking pictures, and in the end, stopping at iconic tea and tiffin stall, situated in Desapriya park, called: ” Maharaj” ( actually, there are two of these. Side by side, almost. The other is Maharani and both are equally good).  We ordered breakfast, and sitting in the open street on benches in the breeze was more fun than going to a restaurant. We had Kachoris, chutney, mixed chola dal, and sweet jalebis! In the end, we topped it off with sweet, hot, milky tea. Honestly, this is the life!

Do you want to know the rest, wait for part 2 coming up soon.