Maha Ashtami

No sooner did I get up in the morning than my mother came hurrying into the room. "Get ready and go the pandal soon. You are late." Purohit moshai had already left for the pandal after his morning cup of tea. By the time i reached the pandal almost twenty minutes later, Chandi Path, which is recited on each of these three days, was over. The aunties were busy with cutting fruits and setting the grounds for the puja to begin. At nine a.m. promptly, amidst dhaak, ulu dhwani and shonkho, Devi Aradhana for Maha Ashtami began.

My job for the day was to hand out coupons to all those who came in with Puja trays. Ashtami is the day when we especially reserve a special place to hold almost 250 such puja trays. And a single mistake there can leave a person perplexed while trying to retrieve his 'thali'. The Pushpanjali for the day had been scheduled at 12 p.m. Accordingly, I handled the thali coupons till eleven and then went back to change for i hand decided to wear the typical bengali red and white saari for the occasion.

By the time I walked back to the pandal, it was full to bursting. Purohit moshai and MM announced that there would be three rounds of pushpanjali to contain the crowd. After those three rounds came the most testing part of the day - the time to hand back the thalis after cross checking the coupons. O God, its nothing short of a nightmare. While you cant afford to lose your patience those two hours (or more depending on the number of thalis; this time there were 337), the impatience of the ladies who want their respective thalis back right then, may sometimes get into your nerve. And then there are some trying to use influence herein too! For example, this lady in bright shocking pink saari (we folks were already 'shocked' to see the colour when she came to hand over the tray!) almost pinched me hard while trying to get hold of me to hand over the coupon. And when I winced and glared at her, she immediately turned to another aunty - our volunteer and her next door neighbour. Thankfully, this aunty had seen everything and politely asked her to wait for her turn in the queue.

While all this was going on, the Bhog Committee was buzzing as a bee, conducting the same business as ours but only to hand over a big 'handi' of yummy khichdi with all its accompaniments - subzi, chutney and kheer (mmmmmm, almost makes me go back to those three days).

The evening today was reserved for senior level antakshari, Ek minute and of course Shandhi Puja from 12:05 am onwards. The senior antakshari comprised 5 teams with three participants each; Raja, Sweta and Silky as anchors. I, as usual, donned the judge's cap. The rounds were quite interesting with the aunties either singing just the first line or eating some words in between, often replacing them with mmmmmms or unnnnnnnnnnns!!! And then looking at the anchor as if saying, "We have done our best. You do the rest." Admittedly, we had to give it to them or else...u know what would follow since you have stayed with me since Panchami.

Shandhi Puja

The Puja began at 12:05 am sharp and ended 45 minutes later. I am sure you all know by now that this Puja was actually carried out by Rama before conquering Ravana. Amidst 108 lotus, 108 diyas, balidaan, bhog, arati, dhaak, shankh and uludhwani, the puja came to an end. We cleared away the utensils, distributed the bhog amongst those present and turned in for the night.