Kali Pujo- The Bengali Way of Celebrating Diwali

I love to spend Diwali in Mumbai and never leave the city during this time of the year. Diwali in Mumbai, or for that matter entire North India is very different from my home state Bengal. In my part of India Diwali or Deepavali is celebrated as “Kali Puja” or “Shyama Puja” and not "Lakshmi Puja" unlike the rest of the country. After Durga puja this is the second largest Puja for the Bengalis.

The Original Fatakeshto's Kalipuja has opened a branch in Mumbai ;-)

As a child I used to be terrified of this day. I was scared of the darkness of “amabasya”, the protruding red tongue of the deity and of course the myth surrounding the goddess.The idol of Kali is intimidating in itself. She is stark naked with dishevelled black hair and a protruding red tongue against blue or jet black complexion. Her ornaments are not the ordinary ones made out of gold or silver, instead she wears a garland of severed heads and a skirt of chopped hands. Out of her four hands she holds a “kharga” (a form of sword or axe) in one hand and a bleeding severed head in the other, with a fox beneath to lick the dripping blood from the severed head. Below her lies Lord Mahadev on whom she had stepped mistakenly. Legend has it that after mistakenly stepping on Shiva she protruded her tongue out of shame. Readers now tell me one thing isn’t the idol scary?

Idol of Andheri Sarbojanin Kali Pujo

The legend of Mahakali states that she is the tamer of ghosts and spirits. A day before Kali puja is known as “Bhoot chaturdashi”or the fourteenth day dedicated to Ghosts. On this day Bengalis light fourteen lamps and eat “choddo shaak” or an assortment of 14 green leafy vegetable. I remember as a child I used to be scared to death on this day, as per legends this is the day when ghosts and spirits roam around freely. Now tell me which child would not be scared of such legends?

Kali puja is performed at midnight. Kali is worshipped by dacoits and tantriks, a religious sect who are said to believe in cannibalism, at odd places like jungles and crematoriums respectively. Legend has that on the day of kali puja the dacoits sacrifice a human child in front of Ma Kali and drink its blood. Even the tantriks do the same and they drink the human blood out of a human skull. Among the unique offerings that is made to Ma Kali is meat and “karonbari”(alcohol).

Huge Kali idol at Fatakeshto Mumbai

I used to be so scared of this puja that I hardly used to step out of my house. Ever since I shifted to Mumbai am slightly relaxed. Firstly now I am a grown up and secondly here they worship goddess Lakshmi. Among Bengalis a girl should be like lakshmi or Lokkhi(Bengali pronunciation for Lakshmi) and not Kali. We refer to a quite, docile and good girl as a “lokkhi Meye”(meye means girl). So in Mumbai it is all Lokkhi Lokkhi and nothing to be scared of.

Light Decoration

The Pandal

A Healthy Child Makes A Happy Home

Children are the real wealth of a family. And a healthy child is like a Kohinoor, whom everybody loves. My now 5.5 year old son is very hyperactive. He never sits in one place; he is always bubbling with energy and literally with his effervescent energy “brings the house down”. However there are days when he falls sick and those are the days when the whole house gets surrounded by an eerie silence. Everybody including the maids go into depression when my son falls sick. When he was small, sickness was accompanied by never ending crying but now he becomes quiet. Whenever the “jumping jack” of the house falls sick, the whole house falls quiet.

Each child suffers from different maladies at different stages of growth. My son suffered from colic pain during infancy as he was a bottle-fed child. Colic pain was usually followed by problem of gas and stomach upset. Ever since he started eating solid foods the ailments changed. After two years of age his throat became his “Achilles heels”. Every other day he started suffering from throat infection followed by fever.

Ever since he started going to school he started getting seasonal viral fever which were accompanied by body ache, headache, sore throat and loss of appetite. I was losing my health and hair over his infections. He often used to miss school and I prohibited him from eating cold drinks, ice creams, fried packed snacks, chocolates and even sweets. My son was not allowed to enjoy all the childhood obsessions that most children enjoy. I used to feel terrible taking him to other kid’s birthday parties as there my son used to pester for all those goodies that he was prohibited to eat. I felt miserable not to allow him all these but at the same time I had little choice.

I took him to the allopathic paediatrician for every small or big illness. She was unhesitant about prescribing antibiotics. Almost every alternate month my child was taking antibiotics which were further destroying his self immunity. It was like a vicious cycle. Tired of this I started homeopathy. Homeopathy helped him marginally or maybe it was my way of self consolation. I was following every home remedy that was suggested to me by my mother, mother-in-law, aunts, grandmothers, neighbours, maids, mom-in-law of neighbours, aunts of aunts, colleague’s maids, internet, strangers, perhaps every possible human being on this earth with a home remedy. Nevertheless nothing seemed to work.

Finally one day my co-sister suggested that why don’t I try chawanprash. She used to give her children chawanprash daily and she claimed that thankfully her children have very good immunity. As I had tried everything there was no harm in trying. The very next day I went and bought a jar of Dabur Chawanprash and started giving it to my son. Within a month I saw the results. He went to a birthday party and had ice cream but did not get a sore throat the next morning. I knew that Dabur Chawanprash has started its work. Ever since I started chawanprash his health improved substantially an I am really thankful as my visit to the doctor has reduced.

Durga Puja Pandal Hopping in Mumbai on Saptami

Saptami is the official beginning of Durga Puja. Mumbai this day saw crowds in most puja pandals. As this year there is one day less in the festivities people didn’t waste any day and thronged the pandals.

Our first stop on Saptami was Manish Nagar Durga Puja in Four Bunglows Andheri. The Protima here was daker saaj.

Our next stop was Juhu Philanthropic Associations’ puja in JVPD scheme Juhu opposite Arya Vidya Mandir School. Their Pandal decoration replicates the terracotta theme of Bengal and the protima again is daker saaj.

Our Third stop was Juhu Cultural Associations Puja near Shopper’s Stop Juhu. They organise it inside a club. It is small puja restricted to its members alone.

Fourth puja was Biswajeet’s puja. They have shifted their venue and this year they held it opposite Amitabh Bacchan’s Bunglow Janak. They have taken up the theme of gram bangla or rural Bengal. The protima is daker saaj but the faces of the idols are jet black making it unique.

The last stop was North Bombay Bengali Association or Mukherjee barir pujo at Tulip Star hotel Juhu. This is one of the grandest puja in Mumbai. This year they had replicated the ISCKON temple of Mayapur. This place was crowded than all the other pandals with food stalls making brisk business.