This is West Bengali’s most important yearly 5 day festival and we were right in the thick of it! Kolkata became a chaotic colourful place with the 10 armed Durga goddess idols and her entourage everywhere. These are displayed in very grand pandals as in Nepal but they are so much more decorative . Such amazing pieces of ‘art’ which in the last 30 years have become more elaborate and complex due increasing corporate sponsorship and a design competition . Some of the panadals have theme, political or topical messages.
People sleep during the day and visit the pandals at night where there are stage shows, speakers, dancing and music. Street food stalls increase and the traffic comes to a standstill as thousands of people walk the streets.
The people of Kolkata were friendly and sought to include us, providing explanations on the meaning of the festival and directions to see the pandals around the city . Some people even actually guided us and invited us to walk in the procession on the last day which we did . Lots of security and police everywhere .At no time did we feel unsafe or threatened in this crazy city of 14 million . No alcohol is sold over this time and from what we have seem very few people drink anyway and it is very difficult to even find a shop that sells a beer!
The festival comes to a climax at the end of 5 days the idols are thrown into the Hooghly river amid singing, chanting, dancing, water throwing and indescribable traffic congestion.
You can imagine what the river looked like the next day and the pollution! Only in India!
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