Durga Puja : Navratri : Dussehra

Today is MahaNavami and the last day of Navratri. Some reminiscences of my childhood wanted to share here..
My father is a Central Govt officer because of which we have travelled places. Thou, getting transferred every 7 years to a new place, leaving old friends, getting accustomed to the new place, roads, people, the environment, the language, the surrounding, etc used to be a challenge. Still, the interesting thing was learning the traditions of the state, their culture and language. The opportunity to interact with new people and making new friends, plus we also got a chance to visit all the other cities nearby in the state.
Talking about the traditions, each place had its own different way of celebrating the festivals.
Come October and there begins Durga Puja.

In Madras (now Chennai), people celebrate these 9 festive days by building artificial steps in their home and placing dolls (Golu / Kolu). They decorate the steps with lights, flowers and rangoli. People visit each other’s homes to see the exhibition. The dolls mostly depict Hindu Gods & Goddesses. I had got the chance to see these at my neighbors and friends place. And the Prasadam that they made was also superb. Dussehra is considered the most auspicious day, hence Goddess Saraswati is worshipped and children commence their learning of classical dance & song on this day.

When we got transferred to Bhubaneshwar, celebration here was totally different. This festival here is observed for 10 days to honour Maa Durga (Shakti) for her victory of good over evil. Massive images of Maa Durga are installed on decorative Pendals and Puja is performed. There are competitions between Pendals for being the best decorated one.
At Cuttack, we could see the Durga idols bejewelled with Silver filigree work, locally known as Chandi Medha. It is a delight to see the entire city, adorned with lights and other decoratives.We used to specially go to see those pendals at Cuttack.There is so much of celebration in the air. Schools and colleges have puja holidays and that adds to the charm as crowds pour into the Puja Mandaps to enjoy the festivities
On Mahashtami. Oriya women celebrate Bhaijiutia, a fasting carried out for whole day to seek Goddess Durga's blessing for the long life of their bhais
Finally on last day, i.e Dussehra, the Puja Idols are taken in a spectacular procession for immersion in the river. Also, on this auspicious day, Puja is performed for all the electronic household items, vehicles, books, pen etc for the blessings of Maa Durga & Saraswati.
In the evening, we get to see Ravana poda, where huge effigies of Ravana are loaded with crackers and burnt to mark the triumph of good over evil. The fireworks are a spectacular sight. Me and my cousins had made it a point every year to see this event.

5-6 days later, the full-moon day after Dussehra is celebrated in Orissa as Kumara Purnima (also called Sharat Purnima) and on that day, people worship Goddess Lakshmi - the Goddess of Wealth and also the moon. Wearing new clothes, we used to be awake all-night & have many sessions of playing Cards. Thou it’s not a form of gambling but we enjoyed meeting all relatives and counting the amount of money we won at the end of the night.

Cut to 2000, we shifted to Ahmedabad, and there I experienced another unique form of celebration for these 9 days. Here, mostly celebration begins at night with worship and dance, hence Navratri..The entire state gets rejuvenated at the night. For the first time I saw a tradition where everyone enjoys, from a little child to the oldest one. Everyone who stays in Gujarat by default knows the two danceforms - Garba and Raas and they swing to the tunes dedicated to Maa Ambe all night. The colors, the lights, the enthusiasm makes everyone enjoy to the full. The interesting part is seeing all the girls and guys being in perfect sync while dancing. Navratri in Ahmedabad has been a real lovely experience. And Dussehra is incomplete without the special Fafda & yummy Jalebis.

Missing all these years and looking forward for another exciting experience in future.

HAPPY DUSSEHRA. May Maa Durga bless us all.