deepawali and kali puja

Susan’s here! Susan arrived on Friday night- on the perfect weekend for a visitor because it’s both Kali Puja and Deepawali, the weather is mild, and the rains seem to have subsided. The two big festivals light up the city and bring people outside at all hours. The city is lit up by colorful lights- hanging, strung, green neon lights in the trees, newly constructed pandals for the goddess kali, and crackers crackers crackers (firecrackers).

On Saturday night we went to Diya’s place for a Deepawali party that involved setting off a huge load (hours and hours) of crackers and rockets from the roof, while watching crackers of all sizes go off all over the city- big, small, under trees, in the sky, under powerlines, by children, by drunk adults, by women wearing nylon saris. We also ate some tasty food and sweets, and played three card poker- a Deepawali tradition. Afterwards, we were invited to a private pujo (religious ceremony at someone’s home) at the friend of a friend of a friend’s house. We arrived at a large red gated home in the center of the city, which we discovered was the home of Cal’s police commissioner. Unexpected. We attended the pujo, which involved prayers, incense, flowers, water, clasped hands, and recitations. We were introduced to the who’s who of the city, and then ate a large and tasty Bengali meal, at the seemingly traditional Bengali time of around midnight. Later, we were invited for a house tour (we weren’t so much invited as we requested one), and we chilled out in the commissioner’s son’s room. The son invited us back the following night for the ceremony to bid kali farewell.

On Sunday night five of us returned to the commissioner’s house for the final ceremony to bid the badass Kali farewell (see the pics). First there was a ceremony performed by women- married women only. They whispered in her hear, asking her to return next year and bring good luck. A conch shell and drums offered music and incense was burned (nearly smoked us out of the room actually). Afterwards, the effigy was placed on the back of a truck, into which about 20 of us piled, with some offerings, drums and the incense. We drove to a Hoogly river ghat, and walked into the mud to watch as two men took kali, dunked her in the river, and pushed her away to float to the Ganges. It was a very moving sight, actually- in a way that I did not expect it to be.

We were given long balloons for the ride back and instructed to fold them in half and hold them above our heads as we drove. The entire truckload of us did this, and the balloons made eardrum piercing high pitched clanking and wailing noises. It seemed as if the wind had turned the balloons into glass. You might imagine that an entire truckload of people making this terribly high pitched noise might cause some inner ear disturbances. But it was a hell of a lot of fun. Afterwards we went for chai, lit off some more crackers, and ate some homemade cheesecake pudding.