Are Gods real? - Durga Pujo Part 1

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Do you feel Gods are real?
The choice is entirely yours for the good part of the year. Driven by routines, thriving in the lands of opportunities, one fine morning do you sense the breeze has suddenly acquired a smell that feels like home? Have you ever wondered why the strength of your roots grows stronger each day!
It’s that time of the year!

Sitting in a half-empty train compartment listening to the verses of Mahalaya on Youtube, you realize the hashtags of homecoming and nostalgia will flood the internet within days. A new injection of life and enthusiasm will hit the city from different corners of the globe. The festive season ensues with its divine blessings. The city was never more ready to accommodate.

In the smell of ‘bhog’ that emanates from the flames of the city, warmth resides in every heart. These four days are about going back to the basics. Dancing to the ‘dhaaker taal’ with the smoke from the ‘dhunuchi’ transcending from the neighbourhood to every active sense in the body, or reciting tongue twisters of the Ashtami Onjoli verses, every year is about something new. Perhaps it is more colourful when you strive to find that little bit of new in the pile of the old.

The midnight madness surrounding the pujo pandals, a long-awaited catch-up with an old friend or seeing your loved ones is what pujo is all about. It is about the freshness of a new cloth coupled with the lights and the colour, the long queues and the dripping sweat. Have you ever felt the energy in the people around this time?. That is the embodiment of this festival. It is portrayed through smiles and the hugs that are only about hope for a better year ahead. It is about the defiance against all odds taught by their very own ‘Maa’. Every year, believer and non-believer alike, have folded their hands and prayed for something to be granted. The wants have changed over the years. The wishes, however, have never changed.

Have you ever felt the aura that a set of eyes from an idol creates to a place? Have you ever desperately wanted the rains to stop before ‘she’ arrived? She watches over you in happiness and despair. Whether you wish to embrace her grace in her abode at home or in a ‘home away from home’, she lets you make the most of it. Her presence is about rekindling lost connections, bringing back old memories and building new ones under the same hood for a few days.
So, going back to what I was saying. Do you feel Gods are real?

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