Yesterday was the ninth day of Durga Puja. I had harangued Mayank about the importance of the puja and how we should visit the pandal for at least a few hours. A non-Bengali that he is, he does not know the place Durga Puja holds in a Bengali’s heart and mind. The meaning of the sound of dhak, Aroti, Dhunichi naach every evening, Prosad, pandal hopping, gorging on street food is completely lost on him. I was determined to educate him and get him to experience Durga Puja in the best way we could in Austin.
So I looked up the place and timing for the Puja on the internet. It was being organized by Central Texas Bengali Association. Since we are in a phoren land, Indian festivals are mostly celebrated over the weekend. Compare that to five days of non stop fun in India. Just the thought depresses me no end. Anyways at least something’s better than nothing.
Austin Durga Puja was being held the coming weekend, I discovered. And we were ready to go. I had dressed up as I would have back home and got Mayank to do the same. Just before leaving, he went online to check the address of the location in order to feed it into the GPS when he discovered it was for the Puja— but three years ago in 2007!! This year’s puja was already celebrated the past weekend.
Crochet and Soccer 