School days – Bijoya Dasami and sweets

Bijoya Dasami is the last day of the Durga Puja festival. On this day, Goddess Durga, along with her children, goes back to her husband Lord Shiva in the Himalayas.
The day is a sad one because it would bring to an end the festivities but, there always remained the silver lining because, on this occasion, the younger ones would touch the feet of elders to get their blessings. And – blessings minus sweets is meaningless and certainly not in order. Therefore, there are sweets and sweets.

In our days, most of these sweets would be homemade – the elder women of the family would stay up at nights and toil with ingredients like flour, coconut and chhana to create mouthwatering delicacies that would vanish in no time.
Then there would be salty stuff like the nimkis or chanachur to add to the tastes.
And – since this Bijoya had to be attended to meticulously, we would go from one house to another, carry out the ritual of touching the feet of elders in the house and then wait for the plate of goodies. The process would not be restricted to only relatives but would also encompass neighbors as well.

Since schools would be closed, our visits would go on till lunch time and by the time we came home, we would have lost all appetite for normal lunch. (to be continued …)