Navaratri Diaries- Day One- THE WHITE SAREE…

Radhika peeped at her window and realised that it was the season of Navaratri. The festival was filled with so many ranges of Colours that actually expressed the emotions of the great Kaali for whom we are indebted for creating us in the world. Radhika was confused to choose the saree for this year’s celebration and she dropped her bed with so many bright gemstone embellished sarees. While some were made of pure silk, some made of polyester, and some made of cotton, she was crazed with buying different types of sarees and during any festivities, Radhika displayed her inner talent of expressing herself in a beautiful iron folded and strapped saree that always draws the attention of people around her. She had many varieties and ranges of sarees in her closet and she gazed through the areas she had bought and many memories lit her mind while seeing them. The memories of buying it in any shopping by herself or with her family. But one dress made her well her eyes. It was her marriage lehenga. The lehenga was resplendent with so many gems, stones, pearls and ruby stones embossed on it with a beautifully crafted design. She was confused to chose which one to wear. And seeing this many varieties of sarees made her think about the past when she was with her husband. 

A year before she and her husband Mayank arrived in Kolkata at the same time to visit the great durgamata’s temple for celebrating their festive eve and also their newborn marriage. Radhika tied the knot with her husband on that same year and to start their martial life on a good and positive note, Radhika came to Kolkata with her husband. They were in deep love with each other and promised to stay together in any hurdles and difficulties they would face in future. Radhika was wearing a beautiful red bordered yellow tanned whitish saree for the eve and the colour of kumkum and the loud chorus of chantings filled their minds with spirituality and devotion. They both were in a trance after entering the city and enjoyed their stay in Kolkata. As they were getting ready for the final day Navaratri Utsav where the idols are dissolved in water where Durga maa finally gets immersed in the deeper depths of Sarayu and other holy rivers across the nation to reunite with her husband Shiv after the festival, Radhika who always engrossed on specialising herself and her costume made it late to reach the ceremony. Mayank though admired his wife’s dressing sense, at the same time also gets often irritated as she makes it late for them to reach anywhere they wanted to go. Mayank after waiting endlessly left an angry note on the table that he would take a cab to reach the banks to see the ceremony for which they had travelled so many distances to gain the chance to have the spectacular sight and blessing of kaali maa, but he resented his wife for being too self-centred and self-engrossed on focusing her dressing rather than focused on starting their relationship on a good note. Radhika wasn’t aware of this and after she came there in five teen minutes, she noticed the note and realised that she had tested the patience of her husband. She called him continuously but soon noted that his phone was left there. Panicked of being left alone, Radhika took a cab and tried to reach the venue t have a safe sight of her husband first. But Radhika while travelling in the cab remembered one thing about her husband and understood why her husband was in a hurry to reach the venue early. She reminisced a moment when her husband had a social phobia and anxiety about coming in crowds. So he always avoided reaching there, but for Radhika’s sake to have the Dharshan of the kaali, they have come a long way and also in spite of knowing that he would be terrified to see and face the crowds, he managed to control his fear and stayed there for his better half. Radhika’s eyes soon filled with tears and she dashed open the car gate only to see a crowd of people having a gaze on someone’s body. Radhika on reaching there was shocked to hell. Her blood and mind both got frozen in fear, her body started trembling to see that her husband Mayank had died due to the huge stone peeped, that had so taken some lives in kaali. The people around there saw the pitiful sight of Radhika relentlessly crying in front of her husband's body and the people. Especially the ladies couldn’t even see her crying about losing their partner on such an auspicious occasion. The people came nearer to her to console and his body while lifting, a Durga maa’s chunari fell occasionally on Mayank’sbody. Radhika related that Mayank left for abode along with kaalimaa and he would have reached the gates of heaven by dying in such a way that it looked that Durga maa. Had taken his life to end his existential sorrows and fear to embrace his in warmth and comfort.

Now at present, even though Radhika had so many sarees to wear, she kept them inside the cupboard and draped a pure white saree and stepped outside her home. She was at the same place, the next year of their marriage, to remember him. Radhika boldly walked forward amidst the chorus of shouting and halts, people gave weird and sometimes harsh looks to her for being a widow and attending such a pure ceremony. She reached the banks like the previous year and to her eyes, she hallucinated her dead husband on the river banks lighting a Diya and gazing at her lovingly. He looked like his eyes were waiting for her to come there and celebrate. Soon she was stared at by many around her and Radhika also felt uncomfortable attending there, when a hand clasped her tightly. A lady in a dark red dress and with a divine face gazed at the vile people who were making a gossip or a topic to discuss. The lady’s one gaze silenced the people’s mouths and it looked as if Durga maa herself had landed there to rescue Radhika from the mad narrow-minded people who are otherwise poisoning everyone’s minds with toxicity and crookedness. While- it is a symbol adorned by many famous lady gods and demigods. It doesn’t represent sadness. It represents purity as a white lotus, divinity like a karpagvruksha bird or like a white Kamadhenu cow that is mother to the whole universe and the creation. White is the symbol of peace and tranquillity and whites are the symbol of power and dignity. Widows are still forbidden in India to attend any festival or celebration or participate in any event as they are deemed pure. If gods adorn the white dress, we accept them in the other way then why not the people whom we are surrounded, whom we love, why are we still ostracising them in a narrow-minded view? Just question yourself after reading this story.