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The difference between global and national culture, between national and regional culture, between the arts and popular entertainment, and between tradition and modernity is getting increasingly blurred everyday. In this ambience, Durga Puja celebrated across the world with sound, colour, music, performance, fashion and décor reflects this blurring of borders. This widens the parameters of culture and enriches the joy that Durga Puja brings in.
Come September, and Bengalis all over the world get ready to celebrate, starting off with Mahalaya. But the festival is no longer confined to the Bengalis. Other Indian cultural and linguistic groups actively join in the fun. According to legend, Goddess Durga visits the earth for only four days. But seven days before the puja on the New Moon day, or what is commonly known as Pitri Amavasya, Mahalaya is celebrated. In the pre-dawn hours of Mahalaya, the sound waves in Kolkata and across West Bengal are filled with voice of the late Birendra Krishna Bhadra changing the Chandipaath, marking the beginning of Devipaksha (The fortnight of the Devi). Mahalaya is a welcoming invocation to Durga to descend on earth. It begins with "Jago Durga, Tumi Jago", which has a mesmerising effect till today when Birendra Krishna Badhra is no more but we can still hear his recorded chanting. The concept of the Chandipath began in the early 1930s, when AIR played the early morning programme, Mahisasura Mardini. We now listen to beautiful audio montage of recitation from the scriptural verses of Chandi Kavya, Bengali devotional songs, classical music and a dash of acoustic melodrama. The programme has also been translated into Hindi, set to similar orchestration and is broadcast at the same time for a pan-Indian audience.
Against the backdrop of Sealdah station in Kolkata, shimmering in the glow of small lights adorning the brick red-and-cream building, a drummer on stilts is playing on his drum. A juggler juggles hats in front of the dhak. They are giving an impromptu performance to the audience that has gathered around. It is Durga Puja in Kolkata. They come from different parts of Murshidabad, such as Pasthhubhi, Andiron, Kandi, Beldanga, Gulzarbag, Jojaan, through parts of Behrampur to Horpur in Birbhum, drawing colourful portraits of their grey lives committed to the sacred rhythms of the dhak. Just as calypso beats are unique to the West Indies, or the sound of bagpipes brings images of Scotland alive, the rhythms of dhak paint a picture of lush green Bengal with the goddess standing in its midst in her regal glory. The dhak is a traditional percussion instrument mandatory for every religious festival among Bengalis across the world. The drums of the traditional dhak are often dotted with vibrating, lively and colourful performances of the dandia dance, a direct import of Gujarat and Saurashtra that has not crossed borders to reach out to the world beyond. It is performed collectively in a circle by a fluid group, informally that one can enter and walk away from at any time one wishes to. No introductions are needed. It is great fun and at Navratra mandals in Kolkata, the Dandia Raas dances run right through the night till the wee hours of dawn. Durga Puja ends with a dhunuchi naach (dance) competition. It is a dance done individually in front of the goddess in a circle with an earthen lamp-like base, inflamed with burning coals on top with incense sprinkled on the coals. It is performed, holding the lamp or dhunuchi in one hand; experts hold one each in two hands and those who are more adept hold two in both hands and one on the groove of the chin.
Sanjay Dutt did this after rigorous training in Parineeta. Earlier, the dhunuchi naach did not allow women to participate but now women themselves have broken the gender bar and take part in this vigorous dance. The biggest and longest dhunuchi naach is performed on Vijaya Dashami evening just before the immersions, and again on the riverbanks where the goddess waits to go back to Kailash with her children in tow. Add to this the loudspeakers belting out Rabindra Sangeet across every street corner, audio shops at stalls selling the latest CDs on puja music, which are normally launched just before the puja days with artistes ranging from Shaan, Babul Supriyo to Alka Yagnik and many more. Durga Puja in West Bengal is the time for new beginnings in more ways than one.
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