Pujo 2008
And thus the 9 day festival came to an end…Nine days filled with fasting and fooding, children and relatives, vacationing and homecoming, loudspeakers and bomb scares, excitement laced with fear and joy lined with tears..surely this was the least exciting puja of my life that I remember. Nevertheless, the last day of Puja, Vijayadashami or Dassera as we call it, ended with a sad note..end of an ethereal phase of festivities and worklessness..
Before I get into the WoW frame of mind again, would quickly sum up Pujo 2008 for me. Firstly I would like to admit that most of my holidays were whiled away sitting at home and doing nothing, apart from watching a bit of TV and meddling a bit in the kitchen when mom was not looking, I didn”t do much actually. Call it demophobia or plain laziness, but I really did not feel like going out that much. The only person extremely excited about pandal-hopping this time was Ma, so I had to relent at times, which I did - “muchever I groaned, at the end of the day I was glad I took her out. Its my first pujo at home in 2 years.
As I went “pandal hopping” with an ignorant dad, a matrimaniac mom and a highly-uninterested-yet-obliging bro, passersby had a gala time overhearing our conversations. Excerpts;
“Mmm..not upto the mark!”
“What are you talking about?”
“That boy who went past us. Didn”t you see him?”
“Uff Ma! Am here to see the pandal and the idol!”
“Chhe! Not a single good looking boy! My son shines among them all!”
“Sadly your son is my brother, and don”t be so obsessed with him. Not everyone finds a tatooed mohawked punk handsome”
And then we were hungry. In kol, people stop cooking at home during the pujas. Consequently, wherever we turned to for gastronomic solace, we were faced with huge crowds waiting for their turn. We decided to ditch the chinese and bengali joints that were bong favourites for something that would predictably have a lesser crowd. We headed to a south-indian joint called Tamarind where, just as we expected, we found a place to sit. Most people thought they only serve idli and dosa since most south indian places are associated with vegetarian udipi cuisine, little do they know that this place serves great seafood. What people overheard at the next table:
“Shit I think i chipped my tooth! Or was it just a shell?”
“Whose idea was it to order crabs?”
“I love crabs”
“Its not that bad”
There were dagger stares at me and ma. Promptly all shelled items were passed on to our side of the table.
Talking of food, I remember discussing our Pujo plans with a north Indian friend who was visibly shocked to hear that we bongs “have non-veg food during navratri“. To tone down the effect slightly I told her that we don”t have it on Ashtami to which she asked, “but still..what about the rest of the days?” Embarrassed I had to confess “Err..well..rest of the days we live to eat. Honestly speaking, we actually hog”. As if this were not enough, bro suddenly popped out his head from behind me and proudly chirped “Hog is an understatement. We have all kinds of meat…” My last and desperate attempt at saving the situation “But while in Delhi I used to have the navtatri thali everyday, its really nice!”. It didn”t help.
On the ninth day (Navami), our colony Puja committee decided to treat all over lunch. It was arranged in the parking lot of one of the nearby apartments, the place was infested with king-sized mosquitoes and much to my parents” embarrassment, I suddenly got up while food was being served to go back home, change into jeans that covered up my feet and went back with a tube of odomos gel for all the helpless souls there.
On Dashami/ Dussera, me, bro and a friend decided to go for a morning drive to some place that serves breakfast till noon. He kept playing Porcupine Tree on our way there until someone mentioned it didn”t go with the food we were having - Hing kachori and Malpuas - he obliged us by changing to Trilok Gurtu. Ah some peace at last.
Sigh.
But hey! Diwali is ahead too! And I love winters!
Before I get into the WoW frame of mind again, would quickly sum up Pujo 2008 for me. Firstly I would like to admit that most of my holidays were whiled away sitting at home and doing nothing, apart from watching a bit of TV and meddling a bit in the kitchen when mom was not looking, I didn”t do much actually. Call it demophobia or plain laziness, but I really did not feel like going out that much. The only person extremely excited about pandal-hopping this time was Ma, so I had to relent at times, which I did - “muchever I groaned, at the end of the day I was glad I took her out. Its my first pujo at home in 2 years.
As I went “pandal hopping” with an ignorant dad, a matrimaniac mom and a highly-uninterested-yet-obliging bro, passersby had a gala time overhearing our conversations. Excerpts;
“Mmm..not upto the mark!”
“What are you talking about?”
“That boy who went past us. Didn”t you see him?”
“Uff Ma! Am here to see the pandal and the idol!”
“Chhe! Not a single good looking boy! My son shines among them all!”
“Sadly your son is my brother, and don”t be so obsessed with him. Not everyone finds a tatooed mohawked punk handsome”
And then we were hungry. In kol, people stop cooking at home during the pujas. Consequently, wherever we turned to for gastronomic solace, we were faced with huge crowds waiting for their turn. We decided to ditch the chinese and bengali joints that were bong favourites for something that would predictably have a lesser crowd. We headed to a south-indian joint called Tamarind where, just as we expected, we found a place to sit. Most people thought they only serve idli and dosa since most south indian places are associated with vegetarian udipi cuisine, little do they know that this place serves great seafood. What people overheard at the next table:
“Shit I think i chipped my tooth! Or was it just a shell?”
“Whose idea was it to order crabs?”
“I love crabs”
“Its not that bad”
There were dagger stares at me and ma. Promptly all shelled items were passed on to our side of the table.
Talking of food, I remember discussing our Pujo plans with a north Indian friend who was visibly shocked to hear that we bongs “have non-veg food during navratri“. To tone down the effect slightly I told her that we don”t have it on Ashtami to which she asked, “but still..what about the rest of the days?” Embarrassed I had to confess “Err..well..rest of the days we live to eat. Honestly speaking, we actually hog”. As if this were not enough, bro suddenly popped out his head from behind me and proudly chirped “Hog is an understatement. We have all kinds of meat…” My last and desperate attempt at saving the situation “But while in Delhi I used to have the navtatri thali everyday, its really nice!”. It didn”t help.
On the ninth day (Navami), our colony Puja committee decided to treat all over lunch. It was arranged in the parking lot of one of the nearby apartments, the place was infested with king-sized mosquitoes and much to my parents” embarrassment, I suddenly got up while food was being served to go back home, change into jeans that covered up my feet and went back with a tube of odomos gel for all the helpless souls there.
On Dashami/ Dussera, me, bro and a friend decided to go for a morning drive to some place that serves breakfast till noon. He kept playing Porcupine Tree on our way there until someone mentioned it didn”t go with the food we were having - Hing kachori and Malpuas - he obliged us by changing to Trilok Gurtu. Ah some peace at last.
Sigh.
But hey! Diwali is ahead too! And I love winters!
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hehehehehe…i loved this piece especially the non-veg bit….its funny but people can”t fathom how shettys (am talking about me) include non-veg everywhere…i remember once i had taken a day off due to an aunt’’s demise…on the evening of her funeral, a colleague of mine called me for some office related info and was surprised when i said we discussing the menu for the night should it be fried fish or chicken…he has still nto gotten over the shock eevn though i told him that shettys live to eat…be it dassera, diwali, or ganesh chaturthi at least in my house we have veg for lunch (that too on mom’’s insistence) but by dinner we have to have at least eggs if not meat…once we even managed to con mom into cooking chicken and serving it on banana leaves…so much for tradition….
LOL!!! “matrimaniac mom” and “tatooed mohawked punk “(is he really????)
Nice and expressive picture… Crabs?
…
aweee it was so nostalgic.it filled me wid sweet memories of my visits to puja pandals
Hats off to your parents, poor bachelor guys are not safe in puja pandals nowadays
I agree the post was more exciting than your whole vacation.
[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Photos*]
see you r still the ant and not the frog or all those poor guys would have been going UH OH ——
Oooooh Crabby Patty
[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Photos*] niiiiiiiiiiiice one ant :))))))))
Delightful read . Holi, Diwali, Puja, Dussehra, Onam, Vishu, Pongal, Bihu , Eid, christmas…….a riot of colours and flavours that is demonstrative of the vibrancy of our composite culture. Why do we get embroiled in the negative kind?
hmm all this talking of food is making me hungry … and theres 4 hours left till noon
that was nice ant………and hope the Diwali will be more cheerful……….tc…………and my dear…….i loved that picture of MA………
arghhhhh- its over isn”t it?
“Not everyone finds a tatooed mohawked punk handsome..” I can almost visualize you and your lively family ..
hey nice one…my family even gets utterly surprised to see that we eat non-veg during navratris especially me being a punju ;)…the second thing that surprises them the most is that even in pooja there’’s no religious activity at home its just darshan and hogging out
Glad that u had ”fun”…glad that u r ant and not a frog as u said!!
Have a greta weekend ahead pal!
i too love winters… am waiting for its coming.. and for the pujo.. ha.. nothing more to say
…” Ke tumi sundori.. age toh dekhini !”.. This was our favourite taunting song to all the girls visiting our Pujo pandal in our para. Jeeez.. that was 30 years ago.. Guess this generation will never relate to those days & senses of Kolkata Dura Pujo. However gengap or no gengap enjoyed reading this one. 9/10:-)
:)) tell me about it! thank god you didn”t share your meat going fast in the middle of Navratra’’s else you would have distracted this first timed turned religious boy!! I didn”t drink or eat on asthmi and waited for 9th day