Thursday, October 3, 2013

Durga Pujo -A Festival of India : The journey


DurgaPuja – The Journey

This is not about Devi Durga’s journey from Kailash (Near Mt. Everest) to earth  but that of few of the women and men - who take pains year after year of adding one more pressing demand in their already over-sandwiched life for last five years.  This journey, for some quite unnecessary and for few rather fulfilling, is bit strenuous and adventurous at times without the physical heroics. For Some others, though they aspire to get involved but succumb to the burden on daily life.
They start rolling their sleeves at the start of August.

It can be well concluded that this whole saga is running an enterprise barring the enforcement hierarchy. In the social context, this poses challenges proven to be extremely  difficult to handle. By no means, this is a small feat to stitch things together end to end without hurting sentiments and ego of your fellow journeymen and women in the process. Besotted by the love and passion of doing something different, the immensely intensified two-three months pose a new set of challenges to their lives - balancing professional and personal front to the extent whatever is left and adding this third dimension – they graduate to be multifaceted in their own circles.

Ultimately one day, over tea and snacks, the journey starts with a planned and re-planned kick-off meeting to break the inertia. During the course , life presents itself with varied experiences in different forms,  on one side be it group politics, polarization, heated arguments, overpowering opinions and on the other hand appreciation for sealing a good deal or collecting few hundreds of bucks for subscriptions or completing a task. People play, yes, People do play in various way and means- some to get the work done, some to do the work. At times, it looks hilarious if seen from a distance and dispassionately but we, human beings, live with all these, amidst all these and end up being a part of it. This is the very psyche of human relationship and there is nothing wrong about it.
The dynamic chaos propel the momentum day by day.
While on my association on this journey over the years, life has thrown a plethora of surprises - pleasant and unpleasant, for my social landscape through a myriad of interactions, reactions and happenings which were hitherto unknown to me. Foolishly I used to think that logic and truth are universal and absolute and failed to notice their very relevance to the contexts or perspectives. My this very understanding that all disagreements and disputes are solvable through dialogues across the table, got a new dimension that made me wiser.  Being tolerant to other opinions -how absurd or intelligent they may be to you but not to the person making the opinion, being heard and listening to the debate, going with the flow at times, adjustments to situations, remaining dispassionate about issues close to your heart,  keeping your personal thoughts bereft of ego and above all not being judgmental are a few significant practical lessons for me being there all through. All these experiences with fellow human beings – how venerable and/or young blood ,have shown me different shades of human character and behavioral aspects , otherwise un-being  and unbelievable of them . That’s a gain and I am stronger mentally. I have matured.

Though these are nothing new in the game called “life”. Encountering them first hand ,in the context of social life, in addition to family and corporate personas , has enriched me to the extent beyond any limits.
This account can go on and on but without prolonging this any further, I would like to bring up my particular personal association with our beloved Sarojda, much senior to me by age but much more spirited, motivated and energetic - a true soldier, guarding every bit of our association as a towering father figure.  Though I fail to keep up with his big strides in this journey, I do cherish the lovely bonding that has developed over chanda collection from door to door, making innumerable calls, sending SMSs, driving miles after miles, taking a sip of tea with Jelabi or Samosa in the gulleys of HSR or Koramangla. I feel this bonding has tested the time through thick and thin, highs and low and has not been broken even pushed into situations with dire consequences. There have been as small as 5 minutes catch up ramblings at the end of the day almost every day to go over the progress of the day and plan for next day. This year, he recovered from a somewhat serious nephrology operation few months back and I had a faint of doubt  that probably his feet will walk slower than ever and not run as usual but he proved me wrong day after day in all the activities. Defying all the odds, the relationship is a lasting one and is of a brotherly nature – respected by our close friends and associates.

At the end of it all, once Durgapujo is gone, they get onto something else. 
Did I say it is someway fulfilling? 

Unconsciously, probably yes.

--Jayanta Tewari

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