Durga Puja at 41, Deblane

(2) Yellow

Ma Durga Brings Good Tidings Capped With The Shoot :

The more I get to see the way Goddess Durga graces our ancestral, the more awestruck I become realizing there is a Great Force beyond our comprehension, controlling our destiny.

Till 12 this afternoon, we were not sure if Ma Durga really wanted Her Puja performed at 41 this year. Yesterday, sorry the day before, I accompanied my Sis to the workshop of the man who made the Pratima (Image of the Goddess) last year. After a short while, the man, one Mr. Shantu, told us of his inability to make the image this year. It is too late, he informed us. He suggested that we visit Kumartuli for the purpose.

On the way back, at the turning of the No. 2 Bridge, I found two men sitting on a pole. I just asked one of them if they knew of any karmakar, someone who makes the idols. The man thought for a while and told us that he indeed knew one such man. At my Sis' insistence, he gave me a ride on his bike over the bridge and down, to a place near Potary Road. He introduced me to a middle-aged man in lungi, bare-chested. The man showed me some idols but unfortunately, all of them were booked. The man who gave me the ride turned out to be the brother of a diseased friend of mine, a promising Md. Rafi's cover is called Pradip Das. I thanked him profusely for all his trouble and was on my way back when I met Sis coming my way, looking as energetic as ever!

Back home I made a call to the bro next to me. He had been responsible for ordering the clay image of the goddess till a few years back. Bro told me that he had to make a call to his student to find out the availability of the idol-maker. My bro also wondered aloud if the man was still in Kolkata as he was supposed to have left for Bangalore last year! God! Ma Durga has to be terribly annoyed with me, for not trying my best, not really going out of the way to invite Her to 4, I told myself!

Yesterday, I even had a talk with Gopalda, a newspaper seller regarding the last-minute search for an idol-maker. He promised to

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let me know if we could go somewhere together for the said purpose. I came to know from Sis this morning that Gopalda was suddenly taken I'll last night! Ma Durga forgive me for all my sins and my apathetic attitude. I promise not to be so naive again!

One person, who has been trying tirelessly to invite Ma Durga to 41, is my nephew, Tapu or Tapas. I found him calling my Sis and wife time and again the day before yesterday regarding the happenings as regards paying the baina' (advance money) for the idol.

Today, at 12, we four, my Sis, wife, nephew, and I, went to a place, some half hour's journey from our home near Maniktala. The first karmakar we talked to, showed us a lot of photos of the images he made over the years. But finally, he asked for a lumpsum amount. As the other three had left the workshop, I clenched my teeth:

"What is wrong with us, Ma? Are we all that bad? Why are You still so cross with us, your ignorant children?"

But by the time we talked to the second and last Karmakar, things had brightened up amazingly. The man, one Babul Pal, was more reasonable and a deal was made with him in quick time.

As we got back into the waiting cab, I called up an incident that had happened earlier in the day. The people from the industry I wrote about in my previous, came to 41 and left an incomplete image of Ma Durga on the chandimandap near the altar room. That is when the possibility of Ma Durga gracing our ancestral loomed large on the horizon.

Now there is a breakneck shoot of the budgeted film "GAURI" going on. Just a while ago, Ms.Tanisha Mallick, the lead actress came to our room with her make-up artist, Ms. Kakali Haldar. At my request, she obliged to pose for me most graciously. I thought of going live during the shooting. But that might not have been a good idea. I also snapped a photo of a very well-known actor, Mr. Bodhisattva Majumdar.

So, here I am, dear friends, with the good news that the Puja is going to take place at 41. Ma Durga has blessed us again.

To be continued...