Durga Puja and Dussehra Memoirs

 Take 12 - Neeta Mohanty Nayak

Growing up around Durga Mandira in Bapuji Nagar

Durga Puja or Dussehra or just “Puja” as it’s known in Odisha. I grew up calling this festival Puja as this was the most popular festival of the year.  Being right next to a popular Durga mandira, I recall being part of the festivities from a very young age. 

As far as my memory goes back, the pre-puja preparation would start a month or two in advance.  The temple will get a fresh coat of paint.  A massive cleanup event will be planned.  Baikhunta Bhaina (head pujari at the temple) complaining to my parents because we kids would have ran across the clean floors and left our foot prints!!  There will be the much-awaited saree auction from the temple that my elder sisters looked forward.  The sarees from prior year used to be auctioned off to make room for new donations of sarees.  I so vividly remember, the saree donated from Banaras Beauty was the most sought after.

The temple had a tradition of sponsorship program.  20 families were allocated lunch/dinner for the 10 days.  My family had the honor of Asthami lunch.  The preparation would start a week in advance with Baikhunta Bhaina and his head cooks fixing menus and making the list.  I accompanied my Bapa to Hata a lot.  We would buy large quantities of supplies and directly deliver to mandira.  The day of Asthami, hustle bustle would start at 5 am and continue till 3 pm or so.  Hauling the groceries from home through the secret side door to the mandira was the fun part.   Being the right age for chores, my brother and I would run between our house and mandira for anything and everything.  Puja was accompanied with special musical instruments (shehnai and dholak) along with the ghanta and sankha.  New outfits, fragrance of flowers, smell of prasad in the air just brings the nostalgia in me. 

Not every year, but occasionally there would be a movie screening on the open field at night.  We would be on the first row and stay till the end and run home because my brother will scare me by saying there is a “Bhuta” sitting by the roadside.  Often there will be Ravan Dahan and I would bring potato and other vegetables to roast, God knows how much vegetables I have sacrificed in the fire!!  This was so repetitive every year that there was never a need to go around other places in Bhubaneswar.  A trip to Cuttack to see the pandals would be a dream come true.  Only if there was a time machine to take me back… but I do relive those moments in memory.

Bhubaneswar – best place on earth and childhood memories – takes you through life.