Celebrating Pujas, festivals on foreign soil brings a special joy

I have noticed that a lot of Indian festivals fall in the months of October and November. And I don’t mean only Hindu festivals. People from different communities celebrate their festivals at this time. To start with Hindu festivals first — Navratri/Durga Puja/Dussehra, Kali Puja/Diwali and Chhatt Puja are the most common. Of course, people have now started taking interest in celebrating Lakshmi Puja and Jagaddhatri Puja as well with a lot of fanfare. Celebrities from the film industry, specially Bollywood, come to Kolkata and even the suburbs to inaugurate these pujas. Jagaddhatri Puja used to be a speciality of the erstwhile French colony of Chandannagar in Bengal, where idols would go up to 20 or 25 feet. But now we see idols of Durga, Kali or Jagad-dhatri going up to such great heights in Kolkata itself. In this context, I remember a huge idol of Durga about two years ago that was much publicised and caused a lot of problems to the police, and finally people were allowed a glimpse only from outside the gate.

Coming back to the celebrations, one finds Sikhs celebrating their biggest festival, Guru Nanak Jayanti, observing Guru Nanak’s birthday on Kartik Purnima, which they call Gurupurab. They take out big processions where they display their proficiency in sword-fighting or stick-fighting. The Jains too celebrate this day as Kartik Purnima. In Kolkata, the Jains take out a procession of Lord Parasnath. His idol is placed on a rath and taken to another temple. On this day Jains go on a journey to worship Lord Adinath at his temple on Shatrunjay Hills at Palitana in Gujarat. This Shatrunjay Teerth Yatra is very important to a Jain devotee, who covers 216 km of rough mountainous terrain on foot to worship at the Lord Adinath temple atop the hill. I recently came across a magazine article that talked about the Wangala Festival. This is a festival of Meghalaya’s Garo tribe, also known as the Festival of 100 Drums, which is actually a harvest festival, observed to mark the onset of winter. The tribals dress up in traditional vibrant outfits to pay obeisance to the Sun God and give their thanks at the end of the sowing season. The festivities are marked by blowing horns, traditional dance performances and the beating of drums.

During the Durga Puja/Navratri period this year I was in Geneva, the second largest city of Switzerland. The two-day trip was for a United Nations meeting there. Most Indians living in Geneva work with NGOs as there are over 20 internationally-renowned organisations there. Geneva is also the headquarters of the Red Cross and the European base of the UN, as well as a global hub for diplomacy and banking.

On Ashtami day, I saw Durga Puja celebrated at Centre Vedantique Geneve. I had earlier seen Durga Puja celebrated in Montreal, Quebec, and had heard of many Durga Pujas being held in Britain and the United States.

In America, of course, Durga Puja is celebrated in many places, which is hardly surprising as it is such a vast country. In fact, several pujas are held in places as far apart as Texas and Washington, and in New York too pujas are hosted by several organisations. There are many Bengali Associ-ations and Bengali cultural organisations which hold Durga Pujas, besides places like the Ramak-rishna Mission centres.

According to senior members of these outfits who were instrumental in starting the Durga Puja in their areas, Durga Puja as a community puja began in the 1970s in the US. Unlike in their motherland, here deities are not brought every year as they are not immersed after the Pujas. They are packed neatly into boxes once the puja is over, to be taken out again the following year. The pujas here, unlike those back home, are celebrated in a traditional manner. There is no extravagance in décor or pandals, nor are there any of the modern trappings one finds in puja pandals in West Bengal these days.

The priest or purohit is usually flown in from India to conduct the pujas, that are organised in schools, churches or community centres. For cultural entertainment, we find the local Bengali community taking part and small children raised on foreign soil dancing to Bengali songs is a real visual treat. Of course, with more money pumped in and a large number of young professionals settled here, renowned singers and performers from Bengal are also invited to perform at this time.

The speciality of the Durga Puja outside India is that it is celebrated on a weekend during the Puja dates or one that is closest to the Pujas. Unlike other festivals like Holi or Diwali, which are celebrated over a period according to convenience and are flexible, Durga Puja is celebrated adhering to the actual dates. One sees Holi Milans and Diwali parties hosted by different outfits on different dates, both in India as well as abroad.

To get an idea of the number of Durga Pujas celebrated in the UK, I found on one website that there were over 15 pujas in London alone, and another 20 in the rest of the UK, which is quite impressive. One of the most popular pujas, the Camden Durga Puja, was started in 1963. The chief patron of this puja is industrialist Laxmi Niwas Mittal, who hails from Kolkata, and is held at Camden Centre in central London. This year a jatra, a folk theatre form of Bengal, was performed based on Draupadi’s Bastraharan. Popular modern singers like Lopamudra Mitra and Joy Sarkar have also performed there.

I heard from some people that another outfit, called “Prabashi”, also organises a puja, which is held at Hounslow, near Heathrow, in west London. This year they got a new idol from Kumartuli, near Kolkata.

The best part of these Durga Pujas held outside India is that it is not confined to the participation of Bengalis alone. Other people from different communities also take part. The festive Puja days become fun-filled with cultural activities and desi cuisine.  The bhog is cooked by the ladies, who also prepare sweets, sold in stalls set up by them.

One thing that all are unanimously agreed on is they prefer to spend their Durga Puja in London rather than in Kolkata. The reason being the crowds, which make it impossible for them to even have a proper glimpse of the idol in Kolkata, with so much nudging and jostling. Here they can enjoy the Pujas in a peaceful and relaxed manner.

Although I was not present during the Pujas in Kolkata this year, I have heard that some puja committees in the city had their themes based around the US and Britain. There were London streets and squares created by artisans in these pandals. But I missed out seeing these with my own eyes.

Durga Puja outside India is generally observed over a weekend as it is not possible to devote five days as most people would be at work. In Geneva, the Pujas were held on September 28 and 29 this year. I met quite a few Indians there — 12 families were from Geneva and the others were from Lausanne and Nyon. Durga Puja was started in 1996, It really touches me to see these Indians on foreign soil following their customs and rituals with so much devotion. Although Swamiji does the puja, the men and women volunteers do a lot of work. The ladies wearing their saris and men in their kurtas looked impressive, and for a moment it seemed as if I was at a Puja pandal in Kolkata itself. I also found some non-Indians too present in the puja hall.

I met one Ardhendu Ganguly there, who has been actively engaged in the Durga Puja at the centre since the beginning as a volunteer. He was also involved with various Indian functions since 1972. The puja was conducted by Swami Amara-nanda. As in Bengal or elsewhere, in keeping with Bengalis’ love of cultural activities, here too there were functions and musical performances presented by the local Bengali women. After having seen Pujas in Britain and the US, my first Durga Puja in Europe started with Switzerland. In the years to come I hope to see many more outside India.

The writer is a social and cultural activist based in Kolkata, and a frequent international traveller