Tag Archive | Durga Puja
Durga Puja and Ram Lila
MY 200th POST
I had been actually looking forward to celebrate Durga Pooja this year since my sister, my brother in law and my sister’s in laws were at our home this time. Being a Bengali, Durga Pooja is the festival of the year. So here is a photo feature and an account of this year’s Durga Pooja. 🙂
Protected: Random Thoughts on Republic Day
Election Campaign
My dear bloggers, I am a humble servant of the blogosphere. I have dedicated my life to serve posts to the people of blogopshere and work for the development of their minds and enrichment of their knowledge. If you vote for me, I promise to bring spammers under control and check spam rise. When I become Prime Blogger, I will assure employment and food for thought for all readers and commenters. Once I become PB, I will crack down on all trolls and make blogosphere a safe and peaceful place. I will work for cooperation and peace between Blogspot and WordPress. Under my primebloggership, blogosphere will flourish. Every blog will get hits and good comments. I’ll work for the better quality and length of posts. Every worthy blog will be featured on homepage instead of that irritating two yellow boots who always talks about Sarah Palin. So vote for me and ensure a better blogosphere.
Yours truly, Reemawati.
(Read between the lines : Give me vote and I’ll give you money. I’ll give you blankets for winter and sarees to your wives. Just let me become PB then I’ll end all criminal cases against me and fill my Swiss Bank Account.)
Durga Pujo 2008 – Photo and Video Feature
This is the final post of the “Fun time of year” series. So Maa Durga’s visit to her parents is over and she has headed back to her home. My 3 days holidays are over and sadly I didn’t even start grading the answer sheets. But no regrets as I have a weekend ahead. 🙂 So here is my post as a summary of Durga Pujo 2008. First I would like to share a wonderful video I found on You tube with same title as my post.
Fun Time of Year – Part 2
So while a friend is giving test at work, another is slogging hard with his female colleagues, another doesn’t even have a holiday on Dusshera and rest of you being equally busy, I’m enjoying today the first day of my 3 days holidays i.e. Mahaashtami, Mahanavami and Vijayadashmi. I’d said in my part 1 post that I have yet to do the shopping. So finally I was able to prepare for Durga Puja by buying 3 dresses and 1 pair of shoes. I’d also said that my next photos will be those taken from my new digital camera. After much brainstorming with my sister and bugging her and to a much lesser extent Suda and Sakhi too, I finally bought my first digital camera. Yippeeee! Presenting Sony Cybershot DSC W170 :-
Fun Time of Year
So its that time of year again. The time when my Dad uncovers the cassette player and digs out two cassettes of devotional songs in Bengali from the pile of cassettes which are now ignored in today’s world of Winamp and Channel V. He plays them every year on the first day of this time of year at an unholy hour of 7.00 am that too quite loudly. And we know by listening to “Mahishashur Mardini” that its Mahalaya i.e. the beginning of Durga Puja that day. You can listen to some songs at this link here.
Mahalaya is an auspicious occasion observed seven days before the Durga Puja, and heralds the advent of Durga, the goddess of supreme power. It’s a kind of invocation or invitation to the mother goddess to descend on earth – “Jago Tumi Jago”. This is done through the chanting of mantras and singing devotional songs. Since the early 1930s, Mahalaya has come to associate itself with an early morning radio program called “Mahisasura Mardini” or “The Annihilation of the Demon.” This All India Radio (AIR) program is a beautiful audio montage of recitation from the scriptural verses of “Chandi Kavya”, Bengali devotional songs, classical music and a dash of acoustic melodrama. The program has also been translated into Hindi set to similar orchestration and is broadcast at the same time for a pan-Indian audience. This program has almost become synonymous with Mahalaya. For nearly six decades now, the whole of Bengal rises up in the chilly pre dawn hours, 4 am to be precise, of the Mahalaya day to tune in to the “Mahisasura Mardini” broadcast.
My Random Thoughts 
