Mahalaya means Chandi Path

Mahalaya is the auspicious day when the Durga Pujas begin with the artist drawing the eyes of the idols of Goddess Durga – and, the panic sets in inside the Kumartuli where the idols are painstakingly made ready. In case of sudden rains, which is not uncommon, the artisans have to not only protect the clay idols safe from the rainwater but also have to resort to artificial drying by heating with blow torches to dry the paint.
Simultaneously, on this day, there is a special program broadcast over Akashvani (earlier All India Radio). It is called Chandi Path and it starts at 4am and goes on till 5.30am. It is the invocation of Goddess Durga and describes, through devotional songs, about her journey from Kailash to annihilate the demon King Asura who has the ability to change his form at will. He is an evil force and, like all evil, can change the form to attack others.
Durga Devi, armed with ten weapons donated by ten different Gods, succeeds in eliminating Asura and continues to the abode of her parents in Bengal.
This early morning program was totally Bengali one but, subsequently, other stations of Akashvani (like Delhi) began – only, it starts half an hour later and while the commentary is in Hindi, the songs remain original Bengali songs.

Another aspect of Mahalaya is the ritual of ‘tarpan’ that people perform on the banks of the River Ganges – this ritual is in remembrance of one’s parents, relatives and ancestors who have passed away into the nether world. The usual practice in Kolkata is for people to listen to the ‘Chandi Path’ and then proceed to the banks of the Ganges for the ‘tarpan’.
And – ye another important activity connected to Mahalaya is the shopping. Usually, this is the time when employees get their bonuses and, shops offer discounts. Obviously, there is a mad rush and the crowds have to be seen to be believed. These shops do not cater to the moneyed class and credit cards are seldom used. (to be continued …)

Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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My forays into the world of Bengali writing

I have already mentioned that my first Bengali story was published in the monthly magazine Mashik Romancho. Subsequently, they published some more of my stories and, when next I visited Kolkata I decided to drop in on them and have a face-to-face direct interaction with the editor.
Accordingly, I located the address in north Kolkata – and was surprised to discover that it was a family affair. The magazine had been started by a person who had links with the All India Radio and, therefore, some big names of the world of radio used to write for the magazine. However, the present editor was his son and he had his offices on the ground floor of their ancestral building in a lane of north Kolkata. It was near the Hedua Park.
In those days it was the age of letter press printing and there would be compositors who would compose the matter for every page based on the handwritten manuscripts. Obviously, neat handwriting was important as well as the ability of the compositor to decipher the words.
After the pages were composed, the matter would be printed one off and submitted to the proof reader – he would check the accuracy and correct the matter where needed before the matter was sent for final printing. This was done in a 16-page format – that means eight pages on each side. Later the formats would be arranged, printed and bound into magazine form. The last step was the distribution to book stalls and other outlets, including the railway stations like Howrah station.
Getting to know the intricacies of printing a magazine was a great help to me as I learnt many years later when I printed magazines from Nashik – yes, Bengali magazines printed from Nashik, thanks to language software, computers and photo offset process.
Anyway, the editor of Mashik Romancho encouraged me to write on topics like spying – it was the age of James Bond and other characters like him and I also went ahead a created a Bengali version of James Bond. (to be continued …)


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School days – Mahalaya and Durga Puja shopping

Mahalaya was, and still is, a very important day in the lives of Bengalis because that was the auspicious day when Goddess Durga left her abode in the Himalayas to come down to her parental home in Bengal. She would come down with her four children Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh. Mahalaya was also the day when shopping for Durga Puja would usually begin.

The day would take-off with the all-famous Chandi Path by Birendra Krishna Bhadra transmitted over All India Radio (that was the name in the 1950s) – the transmission would start at 4am and go on for one-and-half hours. We brothers would lie curled up between the blanket s and listen to how Ma Durga, armed with weapons given by other Gods, killed the demon King Asura.
Her annual visit would last for four days and Bengalis, wherever they may be, would celebrate the occasion and enjoy to the fullest.

Well – for the Puja marketing we would usually go to Kamalalaya Stores, the famous departmental store of those days. It had separate sections for dress, utensils, bedding, suitcase, shoes, toys, books and even a mini-restaurant where we would invariably drop in to taste some new dish before proceeding to the exit to collect our purchases.
Kamalalaya Stores was an ancient edition of today’s shopping malls with practically everything under one roof. (to be continued…)
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