Festive times ...where are they?

Every year during this time I would generally be counting days for the festive time to begin... 

Especially Durga pujas, which is so much more than puja and rituals, it is celebration and fun time...With less than a month to go, if this were a regular year, Kolkata would have started transforming....creative puja pandals would be coming up, shopping places would be buzzing with people, and a general sense of happiness would prevail. 

Year 2020 changed it all! This year I feel none of the excitement :( 

Can't imagine I won't go out to see those creative and artistic pandals, each more unique than the other. The pujas will be held but on a low scale and in a controlled way given that the pandemic is continuing to be. Don't know if there will be those out of the world creative pandals to see this year, and even if there are, I would have to stay home and watch on TV 😢

I was going through the pictures I had clicked from the 2019 Durga pujas.  Just going through the artistic and beautiful pandals makes me yearn for those times. Will miss those moments this year...

I missed sharing pictures of  some of my favourite puja pandals from South Kolkata. Posting those down below.Stay safe and let’s throw this relentless virus out of our lives!

The below pandal was on a jungle theme, very well created:)

The below Durga puja pandal was a gem, my personal favourite. They created an old time Kolkata street with shops, houses, cycle repair stores, saloon...so real..so perfectly done. This is what I am so amazed about, every year, year after year...the creation is mind boggling...not seen any such creative puja pandals anywhere!





The below was unique too, the faces that you see...would keep changing as you approached them, from  Goddess Durga's to famaous women in history.




Another beautiful and artistic one:)



The below was on recycling plastic, and they used it in the decorations:

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From my archives: North Kolkata Durga pujas 2019, the popular ones

The setting sun and the contrasting colours of the sky tells a story

 

I love sunsets; there is something indescribably beautiful about them. Time comes to a standstill; the changing colours and contrasts of the sky leaves me mesmerizied. One moment dark and cloudy, and the next moment clear and a brilliant blue; the canvas of sky changes so beautifully and completely...

Isn’t it so much like the contrasting experiences we face in our lives?

Even more so now with the entire world in the grips of a pandemic that has changed and is changing so much around us, and in us. I wonder why contrasts come into our lives...and when they do, the tunnel seems inordinately long without any light in sight :(  All is not lost for sure, and the good news is, nothing lasts forever:)

Here is one of my favourite poems by Rumi, so relevant and so beautiful; it fills me with hope:

Seeker, when you feel your soul contracting

know it is for your own good.
Allow not your heart to burn with grief.
In times of expansion you spend
and this expenditure requires
an income of painful soul searching.

If it was always summer, the roots would burn 
and the gardens would never become green.
Winter seems bitter but it is also kind.
When contraction comes, my friend,
behold the expansion within
be cheerful, do not complain.

The eyes of a child are fixed on the wants of now 
while the eyes of the wise see to the end.
When you close your mouth 
another one will open, seeking nourishment 
in the mysteries of Spirit.
The sugar of sensual joy 
is the fruit of the garden of sorrow 
this joy is the wound, the sorrow is the plaster.

Learn to embrace sorrow 
look straight at its face and joy will reappear.
All action sways between contraction and expansion 
both as important as the opening and closing 
of the wings of a bird in flight.

Sharing some more pictures taken from my mobile during the time of Sunset (from my home)

Every cloud has a silver lining:)