Bengaluru: “I can't believe that these five days have whizzed by so fast. We wait for these days the entire year, so it becomes a little overwhelming on the last day,” said Anjana Mukherjee, who was seen eagerly participating in the Shindoor Khela with other women at the RBANMS grounds, organised by the Bengali Association.
The city has been brimming with excitement since Mahalaya morning (September 30). Not just Bengalis but others too were seen doing Pujo shopping months before Durga Puja and joining in the ten-day fervour.
Ashish Kanti Pal of Sarathi Socio-Cultural Trust, which organises the Pujo at Koramangala, is busy with the preparations for ‘Bisarjan’. “We have been conducting the Pujo for fourteen years and every year the crowd and participation has increased immensely,” Ashish said. Various cultural activities, including dhaaki competition, was organised, he added.
Tuesday saw women smeared in red sindoor or vermilion after participating in ‘Sindoor Khela’, a ritual where married women put sindoor on one another and wish each other good fortune and a happy married life. After Sindoor Khela and performing the puja before bidding farewell, everyone comes in huge numbers from all the pandal pockets of the city to accompany their ‘ma Durga’ for the final adieu.
On Vijayadasha
women devotees take part in Shindoor Khela in Bengaluru on Tuesdaymi, the last day of Durga Puja, married women put sindoor or vermilion on Maa Durga's forehead and feet and they apply it on the other married women around them.
The celebrations begin across the city pandals on Maha panchami with Anand Mela where fun-games and food stalls are opened followed by Mahashashti, where the Goddess durga's homecoming is inaugurated with Devi Baran.
The city-based ‘Utsav’, a five-year-old socio–cultural organisation, has witnessed huge participation. “One of the major attractions of Utsav’s puja is our cultural programme. We always comes up with innovative programmes by blending Bengali culture with other Indian and Global cultures. Thus on one hand we have programmes based on traditional Indian classical dance forms and on the other had a performance by Bangalore’s own artistes. We also had musical performances by Kharaj Mukherjee and Manoj Murali Nair as well,” said one of the Utsav organisers.
