Babu Roy's world on the Net: Durga Puja et al

Its been sometime since I updated my blog. The reason was lack of time. I wanted to, but always it was something that I needed to do which was drawing me away from this.

In September I was in Delhi for Durga Puja. There are reasons for my going to Delhi, though the Kolkata Puja is 'better'.

My parents had left for Delhi.
My brother was leaving for UK and parents wanted help.
Attachment of so many years with Delhi Puja.

Whatever be the reason, I went to Delhi.
I reached the DumDum (Netaji Subhash Bose) airport at 6:30 PM. My flight was at 9:30 PM but I was there early to avoid traffic jams. I didnt know though that I would end up 3 hours before my flight time :-)

Also I was trying out a new flight. I had never heard of Indigo, I just knew it was like Deccan - no food/ drink of flight (get your own food) and cheap.

Actually I think Indigo is better than Deccan. They have seat numbers and issue boarding passes, they give you water to drink and the flight staff is nice. Not a bad experience.

Well, on Sashti I went into the Puja Mandal - Milani Mayur Vihar Phase 1, near my house. There wasnt much happening. The Durga Idol had been set up and it was a modern dancing Durga.

This pratima won the prize for the best Idol from East Delhi.

Here is another picture of the Durga.

A mention of Durga Puja in Delhi would not be complete without mentioning the New Delhi Kali Bari and Kashmiri Gate Pujas.

The Oldest Durga Puja in Delhi started in 1909. This was in Kashmiri Gate. Today the puja is located just next to the IP Girls College, near the Vidhan Sabha building.

And near Kashmiri Gate is Timarpur. This year Timarpur had a Durga Pratima made entirely out of Sola. This was the first time they had that in Delhi.

Here is a picture of that. And because they could not worship the Sola idol, they built a Durga out of clay on a small scale and put that near the Sola Pratima.

While the New Delhi Kali Bari Pujo is not as old as the Kashmiri Gate Pujo, it is a very popular pujo. In Delhi, every Bengali who is out visiting Durga Puja pandals will definately visit Kali Bari. My mother has made it a point to offer the Ashtami Anjali at Kali Bari.

This year on Ashtami we were able to offer anjali to both Durga and later to Kali.

Some pictures of the New Delhi Kali Bari Durga Puja and the Kali.

Minto Road and Mata Sundari Road are two places that I have to mention. These are the two pujas with which we have been associated for over 30 years. So if nothing else, Kali Bari and Minto Road pujas have to be visited.

Here is the Minto Road Durga

and here is the Mata Sundari Road Puja. This used to be a very grand puja, but somehow things do not seem to be going very well with them - the pomp and show seems to less than what it used to be.