Happy Vijaya Dashami 2009

Dashain Festival is coming!

During the month of Kartik, (late September and early October), Dashain or Vijaya Dashami, comes in as the biggest Nepalese festival, all of fifteen days. It ends during the day of the full moon. (Last year it was on October 8).

The godess Durga is worshipped with pujas, offerings and animal sacrifices for the ritual holy bathing of Durga in animal blood. I recall that I was traveling at Dashain: the RNAC fleet was lined up while a group of priests were applying tika and garlands to the noses of the aircraft. Very photogenic.

In the Bhandary compound at Dilli Bazaar, the goats would be lined up, the tikas offered to the residents (including us, somehow we were part of all of the Nepalese Festivals). Somewhere we have a photo of Pema with a red tika, stroking the head of the goat that was soon the sacrifice.

But our Barker Durga story is one that is set in Calcutta. As it was also a holiday in Bangladesh, David and I decided to have a long weekend in Cal: staying at the Fairlawn Hotel (another story in the making!). One of the events recommended by the Indian Tourism Board, was to get on a night tour to view the Durga images all over town. The rickety tour bus picked us up in the evening at 11. The city was alive with holiday buzz. I guess we find this somehow also in the Philippines, where the fiestas would be as loud and as colorful as anyone could make it, or contests on the best bands, best lanterns, best street decorations, whatever.

In Cal, the various districts also had their contests of the biggest and best Durga displays: these were to be floated the next day in the Hoogly River. Each district’s Durga had its own set of the usual Calcutta sights and sounds: beggars, loud screeching sopranos on scratchy speakers, the aroma of spicy cooking, stray animals, loads of barefooted running children, vendors with bells or huge voice boxes, people in stages of swaying inebriation. A stage would be set up, the Durgas decorated in coloured paper, sateens, spangles, banners, flowers, whatever. There were small and large Durgas. High and low Durgas. Entouraged and single Durgas. Monotone Durgas. Technicolor Durgas. One after the other. And another.

And, mercifully, we sighted some familiar landmarks close to the Fairlawn. Bleary-eyed, we asked the bus driver to kindly let us off, this was about 3 am; the tour was to end at 5 am, but we’ve already had our lifetime-and-beyond fill of Durgas.